


Sincerely, Scattered Shards

by You_Light_The_Sky



Category: Katekyou Hitman Reborn!
Genre: Alternate Canon, Eventual Happy Ending, Gen, Heart Shards, M/M, Magical Realism, Mentions of Suicide, Platonic Romance, Reborn can be a bit of a dick, Tsuna can see hearts, no one dies
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-04-22
Updated: 2017-03-27
Packaged: 2018-03-25 05:16:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 45,158
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3798124
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/You_Light_The_Sky/pseuds/You_Light_The_Sky
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Tsuna’s the foolish type to give a bit of his heart to anyone he meets. No one ever wanted his ugly heart shards until he met his Guardians. No one ever treasured his heart shards until them either. Hints of All27 and R27.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Part 1: Pendants

**Author's Note:**

> AN: So I started another fic. It was supposed to be a oneshot but became a twoshot because I'm incapable of doing oneshots for this fandom. KHR has eaten my life. Help.
> 
> Warnings: OOC everyone probably (cries), unedited
> 
> Disclaimer: I don't own KHR. The fabulous Akira Amano does

When Reborn first meets Tsuna, he expects the usual (boring) response of bewilderment for having an infant for a tutor. Freaking out. Normal, civilian behavior. Nana Sawada’s easy acceptance of Reborn’s form is… strange but considering she hasn’t seen that something’s off about Iemitsu’s so-called construction job, her obliviousness is to be expected. But Tsuna’s reaction is not.

Before Reborn says anything about the mafia or tutoring, Tsuna looks at him with horror. People have been terrified of Reborn before, when he was in his adult form and a predatory part of Reborn revels in someone still fearing him now without his reputation. Except Tsuna doesn’t know Reborn’s a hitman (does he?) unless his hyper intuition is going off…

But to say that Tsuna looks terrified _of_ Reborn wouldn’t be quite right either. No, this brat looks afraid _for_ Reborn, _on behalf_ of him and a chill runs down Reborn’s spine as he realizes that Tsuna won’t stop staring at the yellow-sun pacifier… almost as if he _knows_ …

No, no, that’s not possible, it shouldn’t be. This child has barely experienced life let alone the mafia and its flames and curses.

Yet, just in case—

“Thinking of getting one of your own, Dame-Tsuna? You’re over ten years too late to own one,” Reborn indicates to the cursed thing around his neck.

“Ah, no! No, no, no, absolutely not,” Tsuna shakes his head so incessantly that Reborn has to laugh. Teasing this young lion will be entertaining for a while until Reborn decides to move on. (He always does. This world is so boring without amusing prey but nothing holds his attention for long.) “It’s just… it looks… um… uncomfortable… I… areyouokay?”

The predator within Reborn wants to pin this child down and demand answers. But Reborn just smiles in an innocent way that always makes Dino tremble from terror. “Idiot,” he shoots a hole above the child’s fluffy hair as a warning. “I’m the world’s greatest Hitman. I’m always okay. Why do you ask? Seen one of these before?”

“No!” Tsuna’s jaw drops. “I’ve never seen anything like that in my life!” His exclamation is accompanied by such shivers that Reborn believes him. This child wouldn’t be able to give a good lie to save his own skin. It’s rather pathetic but he definitely knows nothing about the curse.

Still…

“Tch. Then stop looking at it. Unless you really _do_ want a pacifier for yourself, baby-Tsuna? I know a guy…”

“Hieee?! I said ‘no’ the first time, Reborn!”

Tsuna turns pink as he grabs his bag and rushes out to school. But instead of rushing out in embarrassment as Reborn’s research suggests he will, Tsuna pauses and looks carefully at him.

“Are you… are you sure you’re okay…?”

His question is so meek, so tentative and weak that it pisses Reborn off because he can definitely spot the pity there in Dame-Tsuna’s eyes and _no one_ pities the greatest Hitman in the world. Not even this soft little brat.

He shoots a hole through Tsuna’s hair, watching in satisfaction as the kid ducks into the hallway. “I don’t like to repeat myself, stupid Tsuna. I’m always okay.”

Since the damn kid has the audacity to keep sending such pitiful gazes in Reborn’s direction, Reborn kicks him in the head and decides he’ll just have to use the Dying Will bullet on Tsuna right away instead of easing him into things.

The sight of the Decimo candidate running around in his boxers and necklace feeds the vindictive part of Reborn that still distrusts the kid (of course he does though, he’d be a fool to completely trust anyone. There’s no one worthy. Not anymore.) And he smirks at Tsuna’s complaints later in the day. The kid should know who’s running the show.

Reborn is someone to be feared and he will remind the young lion that at every opportunity to squash any ideas the kid might get about a friendly teacher/student rapport. He’s going to mold Iemitsu’s son into the perfect boss and then his debt to Nono will be paid. No more associations with the Vongola after that. Only his damned curse will be left to tie him down… Of course, there’s no reason he can’t enjoy himself by messing with the kid and building up his paranoia.

By the evening he’s ready to dismiss Tsuna’s strange reaction to Reborn’s presence as rare Primo hyper-intuition nonsense. The kid probably recognizes Reborn as a threat. Good for a future mafia boss. Good for Reborn’s pride. The kid is smart, he’ll need to distance himself from dangerous people—

“Um, Reborn?” said kid’s voice interrupts his calculations.

He contemplates faking slumber but decides he’s curious to what the Decimo candidate has to say.

“Spit it out or I shoot you. Unless you want to borrow my pacifier for when you sleep, gasp, how scandalous of you. Very bold.”

“I… you know what, I’m not even going to say anything about that,” Tsuna scowls, his face as pink as before. And still as entertaining. “Look, I just wanted to give you something and then I’ll leave you alone.”

That surprises Reborn. Dino never gave him anything when they first became teacher and student. Sure he got the standard Mafia gifts required from debts of honour but nothing freely given. _A trap_ , his predatory side scoffs. _A way to lure your trust._ But looking at Tsuna, Reborn finds it laughable that this pathetic kid could manipulate anyone and he’s curious…

“Well?” Reborn gives out his hand.

Tsuna fidgets for a moment and seems to hesitate before he drops the ugliest glass pendant that Reborn’s ever seen into his palm. The colours within the glass are murky brown, like mud and darkness swirled into a tiny container. But Reborn catches sight of the little swirly sun carved into the glass and the shape is interesting, like a tear drop. The chain is rather thin and fine, clumsily linked together in haste.

“It’s, um, a good luck charm!” Tsuna blurts out when Reborn says nothing. “I just thought, um, that you should have it. Ah, sorry it doesn’t look nice. But I felt like it should belong to you. So, um. Yeah… and thankyou!” he adds quickly, “I mean, you’re really scary and I don’t like this Dying Will or Mafia thing but you came all this way to teach me even though I’m no good… so thank you. I’m really grateful.”

He looks away and Reborn feels his throat dry in the absence of the resolve in Tsuna’s eyes. This kid… he…

The glass pendant is ugly as hell and he wouldn’t be caught dead wearing it. But Reborn pockets it.

“No good, huh…” his fedora hides his smirk.

Could be interesting.

0

Nana’s heart has a hole in it. Many holes. When Tsuna is seven, he can see the tiny cracks that have given way to a tiny dot, barely bigger than the site of a needle injection, in the colour of Nana’s otherwise clear, calm sea-blue heart. Normally, he wouldn’t notice. It’s so small and Tsuna knows that if you leave some cracks alone, they heal on their own. Some hearts fill in the cracks with another colour, like green or gold, adding new coloured veins to the glass complexion of their shape. Some hearts appear good as new, only a slight indent tracing the pattern of old cracks.

But Nana’s heart has many holes now. Little things. All bunched together, creating a mosaic of a bigger hole, none of them crossing into each other yet. When the wind passes by, sometimes Tsuna thinks he can hear the low twisted moans that each hole makes. Sometimes he hears absolutely nothing and somehow that’s more frightening.

Except when Tsuna tugs on her sleeve and asks her if she needs a hug, Nana will smile but the cracks in her heart will say otherwise. She’ll indulge in a snuggle and for a moment, Tsuna thinks he hears some of the cracks sigh in relief.

0

At breakfast, Reborn notices two glass pendants hanging around Nana’s neck. One is a faded blue colour, worn away like old paint in a wasted house. The other is eerily similar to the pendant the kid gave Reborn the other night. It’s the same murky mud colour but the carving has two hearts intertwined instead of a sun and the shape of the glass droplet is a pure circle. Reborn narrows his eyes and decides he’ll wake the kid up later (he wonders what expressions Iemitsu’s child will make when he realizes he has only five minutes to get to class and cackles inwardly.)

“…That is an interesting pendant you have there, Mama,” he says. “Did Tsuna give you that brown one as well?”

“Ara,” Nana blinks up from her cooking in pleasant surprise. “Did Tsu-kun give you one of the Sawada family charms then? How lucky!”

That… wasn’t in the files on Nana or Tsuna Sawada. Fucking Iemitsu.

“…Family charms?”

“Something my mother used to do and that Tsu-kun’s picked up. Isn’t he talented? He makes the prettiest charms.” Nana twirls the ugly brown pendant in her fingers as if it’s precious gold before she frowns down at Reborn. “That’s why you should hold on to the one he gave you. It’s special.”

Reborn feels mildly impressed and suspicious. “He made those then?” Glass blowing, hell, even glass shaping is a unique talent. Quite difficult. But he hasn’t heard any reports of Tsuna going into a glassblower’s workshop or even renting out a studio and the Sawada household certainly doesn’t have a workshop area for Tsuna to work in…

Nana’s smile becomes genuine (something that Reborn curses himself for not noticing before. The woman has more layers than he thought if her smile could trick _him_ of all people…) “Yes. He did.” But then her expression becomes sharper. “Listen, Reborn-chan. Every charm Tsuna makes is unique and special, intended for one person only. And the one he made for you is yours. _Just_ for you. He gives them to people he wants to keep safe and he put a lot of work into making them. You should wear it.”

His fingers twitch towards his pocket, where the pendant lies. His throat feels dry when he thinks of the work Tsuna must have put into the charms. They’re not pretty but… they’re unique. No student, and certainly none of his acquaintances, have ever made something like this for him before.

“…I will think about it,” he says, to be polite.

But he doesn’t put it on. To wear something that’s clearly the future Decimo’s signature work would scream Reborn declaring allegiance (hell, even _affection_ ) to a single mafia family and that will never happen. He works alone. Granting favours if he’s bored or sees fit.

He ignores the disappointed but accepting gaze Tsuna gives him when the kid sees the absent pendant, even if Reborn feels a heavier weight in his pocket. He ignores how Nana stares at him, fake smiles and all, as if stares can convince a killer to humour a boy’s heart with his protective charms.

It’d be better for Reborn to throw it away.

But it stays in his pocket. Such a heavy weight for a tiny thing. Then again, he stares at the yellow (damned) pacifier, Reborn knows the weight of small objects very well.

0

The first time Tsuna realizes that not everyone can see the floating hearts in front of people’s chests, he is about six perhaps and the first few little holes have appeared in Nana’s heart. The man she called his daddy left a few days ago and he thinks he sees glistening trails running down Nana’s face but then Nana asks if he wants a snack and the trails are gone.

(Later, when Tsuna is a bit older, he learns to listen to the sad croons that drag from the cracks in Nana’s heart and he learns not to be fooled by how she fixes her smile.)

Tsuna’s not hungry at the moment but Nana’s heart always gleams brighter when he says ‘yes’ so he nods. As Nana beams and goes to the fridge to get some onigiri, her heart follows, always hovering over her chest. Sometimes her arms pass through the floating sea-blue heart, as if the heart (for what else could it be? So shining and vibrant with the fluctuations of her emotions?) is nothing but a ghost. Unreal.

“Mama?” he asks when she hands him the onigiri, “How come your heart is see-through?”

Nana pauses. Her mouth falls open in a half-smile and half-shock before she leans down so that she is eye-level with him and whispers, “Tsu-kun… what colour is Mama’s heart?”

He furrows his brow. Adults ask the simplest questions sometimes. He’s not sure why they do that. “Blue. A really pretty light blue.” _Like the sea_ , he doesn’t add. He’s not sure if he’s ever been to the sea before, but for some reason he can picture a large expanse of peaceful, not-quite-white blue and the smell of salt and sand.

Immediately, Nana laughs, wrapping her arms around him and shouting, “Oh, that’s wonderful, Tsu-kun! You have Mama’s family gift! Ah, I should take you to see your Grandma Minori, she can tell you all about it!”

“M-mama?!” his onigiri has fallen to the floor, forgotten.

“Tsu-kun,” she says seriously, “not everyone can see the floating hearts that you do. Only a few people in Mama’s family can; your Grandma is one of them. In the old days, Mama’s family used to make so many beautiful charms to protect people…” she drifts off, her hand reaching up to fiddle with a shiny, dark-blue droplet of glass that she wears as a pendant, “ah, but if Grandma Minori is feeling well today, she’ll teach you!”

 _Charms?_ Tsuna wants to ask. What do they have to do with the pretty hearts?

But Nana is rushing upstairs to grab her purse and before Tsuna knows it, she’s put a light jacket on him and they’re heading out the door while Nana puts a finger to her lips and adds, “Let’s keep this a secret, between mother and son, Tsu-kun! This is a family secret, after all.”

Tsuna doesn’t know much about secrets but as he catches sight of the new glimmer around Nana’s heart, he can’t help but nod. He’ll never tell another soul, another heart, what he can see and do. He’ll keep that glimmer around his Mama’s heart, no matter what he has to do.

0

Tsuna’s first meeting with Smoking Bomb is almost as odd as his first meeting with Reborn. From what Reborn’s observed, Tsuna’s always glancing at people’s chests, never looking them in the eye. If Reborn didn’t know any better, he’d say that Tsuna was a pervert, staring at breasts (and then kicked him for it) but Tsuna stares at boys too. Always at a specific spot. As if something hovers over their ribs. Nothing sensual about it.

Suspicious. Or another weird quirk of Iemitsu’s kid.

In any case, Tsuna is gaping at Smoking Bomb. Not at the gawky skull jewelry or improper uniform but the same spot he always glances at when he daydreams. Iemitsu’s kid looks at Smoking Bomb with such despair that Reborn half expects to see a gaping wound bleeding out of Smoking Bomb or a beast ripping him apart.

So instead of shrieking back when Smoking Bomb kicks his desk, Tsuna actually _nods_ like he understands and asks if Smoking Bomb is feeling alright. The question ‘are you okay’ asked with the same (dare he say it) _sincere_ concern as when Tsuna first asked Reborn is… well... It doesn’t matter because hitmen don’t feel this—

Reborn orders Smoking Bomb to test Tsu— _Iemitsu’s kid, damn it_ —as soon as possible. He fully expects _Iemitsu’s kid_ to run away or protest about becoming the Vongola boss when Smoking Bomb confronts him. And as expected, Iemitsu’s kid shrinks away at the sight of the dynamites but then Iemitsu’s kid stands his ground. His fingers still shake but he looks directly at Smoking Bomb even when he flinches at Smoking Bomb’s accusations.

“Is it true that if I kill this brat, I become the next Decimo candidate?” Smoking Bomb asks Reborn, without turning his gaze away from the enemy.

Reborn watches Tsuna’s face fall at those words. But Tsuna doesn’t ask ‘ _Reborn, how could you?_ ’ as he expects. No, Tsuna just nods as if this happens all the time and says, “…Um, a-are y-you sure we c-can’t work t-this out…?”

“ _What did you say_?!” Smoking Bomb practically growls.

“J-just… G-Gokudera-s-san… I d-don’t know you v-very well but w-will becoming D-decimo r-really make you h-happy?” he asks as if happiness is the most important thing in the world.

Not for the mafia.

But for barely a breath, Smoking Bomb stiffens. Then he throws his dynamites, thirty at a time instead of just ten. Anger drives his attacks, the urge to blot out anyone who dares to peek under Smoking Bomb’s face. Reborn hears Tsuna screaming for Gokudera-san to stop while miraculously dodging the explosions without the Dying Will bullet to help. Interesting. This kid’s Hyper-Intuition is at a greater level than the reports suggest.

“You don’t need to do this!” Iemitsu’s kid cries out. “Please stop,” he continues, predictable really, “you might get hurt!”

Concern for his enemies. Reborn feels the weight in his pocket seem to sink even lower. Weakness. The mafia will eat him alive if that compassion stays so large. But, Reborn knows, the Vongola will continue down its bloody path is that compassion is too small.

 _Iemitsu’s kid?_ No, Iemitsu is nowhere near this kid’s level in stupid kindness. Tsuna, then. Reborn watches as Tsuna shrieks but seems to move _towards_ Smoking Bomb instead of away. Stupid, stupid, kind Tsuna.

Smoking Bomb drops some dynamite too close to himself in his rage and Tsuna tackles the other kid to the ground, covering him with his body in the explosion.

No Dying Will bullet needed.

“Y-you…!” Smoking Bomb stutters as Tsuna groans over top of him.

“I… oh my god,” Tsuna jolts up, “I’m so sorry for squishing you and,” he hisses, rubbing at the back of his arms, “are you alright?! You don’t have any burns do you?!”

Smoking Bomb stares at Tsuna the way one might look at an undiscovered alien or maybe even an angel from space.

“W-why… why did you…?”

“You were throwing dynamite around!” a hysterical edge finally enters Tsuna’s voice, “I couldn’t just leave you! Besides, you… you seem like you’re a good person. Um. I think.”

Smoking Bomb’s lips tremble while Reborn has the urge to slap Tsuna for his naivety and to wonder what Tsuna will see in people when he falls into the criminal underworld. Is it really possible to change this stupidly naïve creature into the world’s most powerful mafia boss?

Of course it is. He’s the world’s greatest hitman. He can do anything.

“That… that’s stupid… how can you even…? I’m a _hitman!_ ”

Reborn watches as Tsuna flinches back and nods self-deprecatingly. “Yeah. I know… but…” he looks back up at Smoking Bomb with a tentative smile, “you… you’re not just a hitman. You’re a kid too. And you… you get hurt… so, please take more care of yourself. You’re… well, you’re better than you think. Better than me, anyways. I’m no good at this whole thing.”

Smoking bomb says nothing, his mouth slightly open. The fumes from the cigarette at his feet has long gone out, barely a wisp left.

Tsuna ducks his head and turns away, “Uh, bye, I guess—”

Desperation and awe awaken in Smoking Bomb’s face and it’s only because Reborn predicted this outcome (though under different circumstances like the Dying Will Bullet) that he doesn’t shoot Smoking Bomb's fingers off for grabbing Tsuna’s sleeve.

“ _I’m not worthy to be in your presence, Tenth!_ ” Smoking Bomb bows suddenly, taking Tsuna down with him because he still hasn’t let go of Tsuna’s sleeve.

“Um, I, _what are you doing_ ,” Tsuna stumbles back shrilly. He can’t move, of course. Smoking Bomb’s grip is tighter than a dead man’s noose.

Unfortunately for Tsuna, Smoking Bomb is still bowing but Reborn watches as a disturbing, dazzling hero-worship colours the boy’s eyes when he looks at Tsuna. “You’re amazing! Saving someone as lowly as me! Showing concern! I am not worthy to call you by your name but I will follow you forever!”

“I… _what?!_ ”

The utter shock and horror on Tsuna’s face is so amusing that Reborn snaps a picture. For blackmail, obviously.

“The truth is,” Smoking Bomb continues, uncharacteristically shy that if Reborn didn’t know he was related to the Poison Scorpion Bianchi, he’d wonder if Smoking Bomb was possessed, “I don’t want to be the Boss. It’s not my thing. But when I heard some Japanese brat with no experience was going to be Decimo, I got pissed off. Especially when I saw your grades. But you… you’re so much better than that! You’re kind and perfect and I promise to become worthy of you!”

“Um…” Tsuna glances down at Smoking Bomb’s chest, a complicated expression on his face. “Can’t we just be friends…?”

“ _NO!_ ” Smoking Bomb declares fiercely, “Absolutely not!”

“In the mafia, the loser has to become the winner’s subordinate. Congratulations, Tsuna, on gaining your first family member,” Reborn decides to speak up and watch Tsuna’s reaction. To his delight and disappointment, Tsuna shakes his head furiously.

“No, no, no, absolutely not, I can’t just have a subordinate! We’re _friends,_ friends, Gokudera-kun, please!”

Too soft, this one. How did Iemitsu get a kid like this? He’ll never survive the mafia, Reborn’s hand tightens into a fist as he watches Smoking Bomb chase Tsuna around with praise and affection like a puppy. Not with that kindness. Can he even beat that kindness out of him? Does he even want to?

Kindness is a weakness. It will get Tsuna killed.

Well, not if Reborn can help it.

0

The hospital is a huge building filled with the saddest collisions of heart-music that Tsuna has ever heard. There are a few hopeful trills from people who are going home with relieved smiles on their faces, their hearts regaining a light shimmer over otherwise dulled, faded colours. But mostly, Tsuna sees hearts that look chipped and mangled like old tree bark, hearts that look scared and burned with terrible black soot, hearts that are shriveled up, void of any colour at all (white is the worst colour.)

He clings to Nana’s hand and wishes he had earmuffs on to block out the cries of these damaged hearts. He wishes he could take each heart in his arms and hug them until their colour comes back. But the only time he ever tried to touch another person’s heart, it was a classmate who was upset about their grade. Their little heart was quivering as much as they were and Tsuna just wanted to help but instead, the classmate just shouted, as if Tsuna had stabbed them and Tsuna never tried again.

He just closes his eyes now and pretends he can’t see, can’t hear.

Eventually, Nana pulls him into a white room and there is an old lady lying in white sheets, hooked up to machines. He almost expects the lady to have as damaged a heart as the other patients in the hospital but the old lady… doesn’t seem to have a heart at all. Not that Tsuna can notice…

The lady is scowling at the television set, arms crossed, before she spots Nana and Tsuna. Her scowl suddenly switches off into a warm smile as she beckons Nana towards her.

“Now if it isn’t my air-headed daughter come to visit! Where have you been, dear? I’ve been going crazy staring at the paint on the walls! You didn’t say you’d be coming in today!” she pinches Nana’s cheek.

Tsuna hides behind Nana’s leg, unsure what to think of the energetic old lady who called Nana ‘air-headed.’ That’s not very nice.

But somehow, the old lady, must sense his presence because she peeks up from her bed and grins down at him. “Ah, and who’s this little fellow? You’ve never brought him before, Nana.”

As she looks sternly at Nana, Tsuna spots a sparkling shard of deep-blue glass, hovering where the old lady’s heart should be and he gasps, “So you do have a heart!”

The old lady’s jaw drops as she turns to Nana. “Is he…?”

Nana nods.

“Then he can really…?”

Nana just giggles and nods again.

The old lady’s face darkens. “No. If that’s what you brought him in here for, then he doesn’t need to know—”

“But mother—”

“I said _no_ , Nana. I refuse to pass on this ability. It’s best if it dies with your son, my grandson. It’s best if he doesn’t know. Now, please leave. Come back another time without him.”

“Mother—”

“I said _leave_.” Her eyes flash and Tsuna sees the little tiny shard that is the old lady’s heart almost crackle, as if surrounded by lightning and in that moment, the old lady doesn’t look so frail. No, she looks like an ancient being from the tales Nana tells him at bedtime, ready to strike at those who disobey.

Nana’s lips form a tight line but she nods. “Fine. But I won’t give up. This is a gift, mother. Tsu-kun needs to know eventually.”

Then she turns and takes Tsuna with her but not before Tsuna hears the sad whistle of a flute from the old lady’s tiny shard.

“…You are the only one would think that, foolish girl…” comes the whisper.

The door shuts.

0

Reborn’s not sure what to think the next day, when Tsuna has yet another ugly pendant and he gives it to Smoking Bomb. The pendant is in a gothic cross shape and the chains, while clumsily made, are thick and fit Smoking Bomb’s punk style. There are several swirls carved into the cross, like storm clouds, but the colour of the glass itself is still as murky mud-brown as ever.

Again, Tsuna doesn’t seem to freak out when Smoking Bomb appears at five o’clock in the morning at his doorstep. Tsuna just glances at that spot over Smoking Bomb’s chest again before he smiles and lets him in.

“It’s great that you’re here, Gokudera-kun,” he says, making Smoking Bomb beam, though he doesn’t mention the inconvenient time. “I have something for you.”

Smoking Bomb’s eyes look ready to pop out of his head. “I—but, no, I don’t have anything for you! You don’t need to get me a gift, I’m not important—”

“Gokudera-kun, don’t say that!” Tsuna says, distressed once more.

“Sorry Tenth—”

“And it’s ‘Sawada’ or ‘Tsuna’! I’m not your boss, I’d like to be your friend.”

Predictably, Smoking Bomb’s eyes tear up. “Tenth, you are amazing!”

To Reborn’s amusement, Tsuna only sighs in acceptance. “I guess we’ll work on that… um, here,” he drops one of the pendants into Smoking Bomb’s hands. “It’s a good luck charm! You don’t have to wear it or anything… I just wanted you to have it...”

Smoking Bomb is so quiet, his expression hidden by his bangs and shadow that Reborn thinks that he’s going to reject Tsuna’s gift (which will earn the stupid hitman a bullet in his head. A true hitman is a gentleman, at all times) so Reborn says, “Dame-Tsuna made it himself” just as Smoking Bomb blurts out, “I love it, Tenth! It’s beautiful!” with dazzled eyes.

Tsuna turns completely red though his gestures remain cautious, not daring to hope. “R-r-really?!”

“Yes, it’s wonderful! And you made it?!” Smoking Bomb spins it around in the light, taking awe in how the glass’s muddy colour seems to lighten to an almost-orange in the right angle. “I’m not worthy but I will treasure it forever!”

Immediately he throws it over his neck so that it hangs next to the gaudy skull jewelry and Tsuna’s jaw drops.

“Y-you… don’t think it’s u-ugly or…?”

“No!” Smoking Bomb sounds like a scandalized Christian who’s heard of pre-marital sex for the first time. “It’s the most wonderful thing that anyone’s ever given me,” he nearly bows but catches himself and just stands as close as possible to his beloved Tenth without being inappropriate, “thank you. Truly. I swear I will make you something just as incredible as soon as I can and, oh my god, Tenth, are you crying?! What’s wrong? Who do I need to blow up?!”

“N-no, it’s nothing, I just,” Tsuna laughs a little and tentatively touches Smoking Bomb’s hand in such a fragile way that Reborn has the urge to shoot someone. Probably Iemitsu. “Seeing you wear it is enough of a gift for me. Thank you.”

“Of course, I’d wear it! Who would reject a gift from _you_ , they must be a demon from hell! Tell me their names…!” Smoking Bomb goes on and Reborn just shakes his head.

For the first time, Reborn reaches into his own pocket and grips the pendant there tight. It feels warm. He wonder if it glints, slightly brighter, in the light like Smoking Bomb’s pendant does around his neck.

Ah well, it’s only a pendant.

He leaves it in his pocket.

0

As they walk home, Nana’s posture rigid like a mannequin’s, Tsuna flinches with each step. The holes in Nana’s heart seemed to have increased, their chorus is doubly sad in conflicting minor keys.

“Mama…” he says quietly, “…was that my Granny?”

She hesitates but tightens her grip around his hand. “Yes, Tsu-kun.”

“…Why was she in that place? She must hate it there.” Tsuna would hate to be cooped up in a building where every room had a different chorus of paint, different hearts all crying out for someone to save them.

“She’s been very sick, Tsu-kun, since before you were born. She doesn’t like your Daddy very much so usually Mama visits her alone when Daddy is there to watch you, Tsu-kun. But maybe I’ll come back with you… try to convince her…”

Tsuna thinks back to how Granny spoke to Nana. Each bitter word was echoed by the crackle of lighting around the deep-blue shard of Granny’s heart. The same deep-blue as the pendant around Nana’s neck. Except angrier. Darker. Maybe even duller in colour.

He shivers. “I don’t think she wants to see me again…”

Maybe she was upset about Tsuna’s appearance. No one would want a weak little grandson like him. He trips all the time and the kids at school laugh at him for always staring into space (at other people’s pretty hearts) instead of paying attention to the lesson. Maybe he’s a failure at this seeing-hearts-thing too and Granny doesn’t want to talk to him about it.

But Nana scoops him up in her arms again and shakes her head, “No, no, of course not! She loves you very much. She’s wanted to see you for a long time but she didn’t want—well, she’ll tell you one day. She’s just shocked, that’s all. She was the only one in our family to see hearts and now there’s you, Tsu-kun. She just doesn’t know how to react.”

The holes in her heart lilt in encouraging croons, despite the sadness there, so Tsuna just nods into her shoulder. But then he stops.

“Wait, Mama, you… you can’t see them…?”

Nana’s face looks wistful as she shakes her head again. “No. Just you and Granny, Tsu-kun. You’re the only ones in the family left who can.”

Tsuna doesn’t know how to react. He can’t imagine not seeing the hearts. Sure, bullies push him around because he’s the weird kid who’s always talking about floating hearts and he can’t help anyone who has a damaged one but… they’re so beautiful.

Yamamoto, a boy who sits in the back row of the class has the most interesting heart of different shades of blue, like a blue sunset. So calming. Sometimes when Tsuna stares at Yamamoto’s heart, he thinks he can see tear stains rushing down the glass but the blue sunset remains constant. Lately though, since his mother’s death, the tear stains are more present, covering up the blue sunset and the hues don’t look as warm anymore. They feel cold. Especially with the large crack scratched in with his mother’s name. But they still glisten when Yamamoto plays baseball and Tsuna can’t look away.

Even scary Hibari has an exquisite looking heart. It looks encased in jagged ice but Tsuna loves looking at the pretty violet hues. Like brush strokes of cloud floating wherever they please. When Hibari is in a good mood, they look like amethysts or bits of lavender looking for more flowers. Not that Tsuna would ever tell Hibari that (he’d probably get beaten up with tonfas.)

Ryohei and Kyoko have some of the brightest hearts Tsuna has ever seen. Sometimes he has to look away because they seem brighter than the sun in their cheerfulness, hearts sequined in bits of gold like armour.

And if there’s anything that Tsuna has ever liked about himself… it’s the colour of his own heart. Sure, his heart looks a bit worn sometimes and he has his own cracks (who doesn’t?) but he likes the warm hues of orange he sees in his heart. They’re not as special as Yamamoto’s or as pretty as Hibari’s or as bright as Ryohei and Kyoko’s or nearly as calming as Nana’s but they give him hope. If his heart gives off such a colour maybe… maybe there’s something useful about him after all.

So he can’t imagine Nana not being able to see them. His heart. Her heart. Unable to see how beautiful her heart is and how it inspires him every day.

He looks at it now, fingers hovering just above it but not touching. “I’m so sorry, Mama,” he says though he’s not sure why he’s apologizing.

Nana’s eyes are wet but she squeezes him tighter. “You have nothing to apologize for, Tsu-kun. Nothing at all. I’m just so glad to have a talented son like you.”

He can’t help it. He cries then. Nana probably doesn’t realize it, but Tsuna knows that this is the first time she’s said that she’s proud of him and he’ll remember this forever.

0

Yamamoto seems the perfect candidate for a Rain Guardian. He has some natural hitman tendencies. The mask of caring for others but a heart bored with the world, unable to connect well with his emotions unless he imitates others. The only issue, Reborn thinks, is whether Tsuna can gain Yamamoto’s loyalty. Tsuna will need the most bloodthirsty guardians on his side to temper his compassion, but these guardians have to need Tsuna in some way or they’ll never help him.

The blessing of the mafia world are the rules of subordination and loyalty and omerta. But this Yamamoto doesn’t live by mafia rules. Only baseball. Time will tell if he’ll be loyal. If not, well, Reborn will have to pull some strings and make him disappear. Same for Smoking Bomb if he ever betrays Tsuna or proves too volatile.

He listens and watches through the cameras he’s planted all over the school when Tsuna and Yamamoto do clean-up after their PE class.

“…What do you think I should do, Tsuna?” he hears Yamamoto ask casually. Clever, asking a recently charismatic-appearing student their secrets.

“W-well… um… usually when I’m feeling d-down… I l-look at my g-grandma’s o-old good luck c-charm,” Tsuna unbuttons his shirt and shows Yamamoto his dulled, dark-blue pendant.

It looks like a jagged shard of mirror that’s been smudged in dust and decay, sharp enough to cut at Tsuna’s collar bone if he’s not careful and Reborn has an urge to rip it off because it looks… dangerous. He’s seen it before, when Tsuna goes into Dying Will mode with just his boxers and pendant. That thing makes Reborn weary in a way that the pendants Tsuna gives out do not.

“Huh, it looks really old. But I like it!” Yamamoto says in a convincingly genuine way.

“Yeah… I just h-hold it s-sometimes and p-pretend I’m t-talking to her… and u-usually I feel a bit b-better. I’m still u-useless at doing t-things but I don’t feel as h-hopeless.”

“Huh. Where do you think I could get one of those?”

Tsuna blinks in surprise. “Y-you w-want one?”

Yamamoto’s eyes darken but his smile stays. “Sure! Why not? Looks neat!”

“Ah,” Tsuna’s face breaks into a smile that makes Reborn’s throat dry. How often has he seen this kid smile genuinely, ever? He’s more like his mother than Reborn ever thought. “I could make one for you!”

Yamamoto looks taken back before he grins. “Really? You’re really something, Sawada! How much does one cost—”

“Oh no, no, no! It’s free! I couldn’t charge you! I’ll have it to you tomorrow morning! Don’t work too hard tonight, Yamamoto. Try it again when you have the charm!” Tsuna quickly sweeps up and rushes away. “Don’t worry, I won’t forget it!”

He rushes away so quickly in excitement that he doesn’t notice Yamamoto’s thoughtful frown following him. But Reborn does.

And Reborn is curious about how Tsuna makes these pendants. He follows after his wayward student but finds that the bathroom is locked so he assumes that he’ll catch Tsuna making these pendants later in the night. Maybe Tsuna sneaks off somehow (though that offends Reborn’s sensibilities as the world’s greatest hitman. He’d _notice_. But he’s not foolish enough to underestimate the target.)

He waits in the hallway, reviewing possible scenarios for luring Yamamoto to the Vongola family when he hears a muffled yelp of pain. A few sniffles through the wall. His killing intent rises and Reborn kicks the door down only to find Tsuna with red-rimmed eyes, hastily throwing some toilet paper into the toilet to flush.

“Reborn, you should knock!” he says quickly.

“You were crying. What did Yamamoto do?” Reborn replies in a perfectly civil tone but from the way Tsuna shivers, he doubts he’s hiding his killing intent well. He had cameras and microphones set up all over the school and he followed Tsuna home so that Yamamoto must have done something that Reborn missed to make Tsuna upset and he’s never wanted to kill someone over red eyes before but Tsuna is soft—

“N-nothing! And how did y-you know I was t-talking to him anyways?!” Tsuna scowls. “Y-you shouldn’t s-spy on people, R-Reborn, it’s r-rude!”

“Red. Eyes. Explain.”

“Allergies!” Tsuna blurts out, “Ask mum about them. My eyes get itchy if I’m outside too much. Sometimes I have to stay home because the pollen outside is too much.”

Reborn frowns but recalls the reports saying something about sensitive pollen allergies.

“Hm. Fine,” he makes a note to call Shamal and see if there’s something he can do about curing allergies. Yet another weakness for enemies to exploit.

Tsuna rushes out of the bathroom and gives Reborn cautious glances for the rest of the night. Reborn waits and waits but Tsuna never sneaks off to go make his special pendants.

Still, the next morning, Tsuna hands Yamamoto a muddy coloured glass pendant in the carefully carved shape of a katana with a bird carved along the hilt. Yamamoto looks surprised but grins on cue before he puts it on.

The grin is real. But so is Tsuna’s.

Reborn narrows his eyes and wonders what he missed.

0

They go back together to see Granny from time to time. Granny still refuses to talk to Tsuna but she does give him grudgingly kind smiles every now and then. Her tiny shard of a heart glitters less but remains stubborn and crackling with bits of dark blue lightning.

Nana’s necklace too, seems to crackle a little. The colour has been duller lately, as dull as Granny’s shard of a heart and it scares him because when the colour dulls, Nana’s heart seems strained too. The sad crooning of little holes grows louder.

Tsuna can’t help but stare at Nana’s necklace and Granny’s shard of a heart and wonder if they are the same thing.

0

Reborn considers the idea that Tsuna simply buys the pendants from a local store. But the pendants are so unique in design that Reborn can’t find any matches. Only people who have had contact with Tsuna seem to have them. How does Tsuna find time to make the pendants? Where do they come from?

Only his pride prevents him from asking and the look on Tsuna’s face, perhaps, if Tsuna asks where Reborn’s pendant is. He’s a blunt man by nature but admitting that he doesn’t wear it because it would be a gesture of allegiance isn’t something he’s keen to reveal.

Yamamoto seems like a different person around Tsuna. His smiles are all genuine when he speaks with Tsuna and he continuously seeks Tsuna out for conversation, to pat Tsuna on the back or ruffle his hair, to thank him for the charm. But Yamamoto still stays close to his teammates and joins in their laughter, even when it’s directed to Tsuna. His behavior baffles Reborn and puts him on edge. Reborn doesn’t know if Yamamoto is loyal yet but he is certainly intrigued by Tsuna so that will have to be good enough for now.

Smoking Bomb, on the other hand, practically seethes when Yamamoto is near. “I don’t trust him,” Smoking Bomb confides to Reborn, who silently agrees. Then again, Reborn doesn’t trust anyone but Leon, who is his bonded chameleon and who he has to trust. So never mind. “He could be toying with Tenth.”

“Just watch him,” Reborn says. Thankfully, Smoking Bomb respects his opinions enough not to cause trouble. Yet, anyways.

Yamamoto’s pitches seem to be better. More confident and self-assured, if possible. The pendant around his neck doesn’t sparkle as bright as the one around Smoking Bomb’s neck does but it does have a certain glint of slight colour to it.

He waves lazily to Tsuna after every game and thanks him again but doesn’t seek him out too much.

“I thought these were for people close to you,” Reborn gestures to the pendant around Tsuna’s neck. The one that reminds him of a guillotine’s blade.

“Huh?” Tsuna jumps. “I… well, I guess so. That’s what Granny always did… but I… well I don’t like to hear people so sad so I give them out to people who might need them. If they want to, they can take them.”

“Hear?”

“I mean, ‘see’,” Tsuna blushes.

“Hmm,” Reborn wonders about his student’s Hyper-intuition. The way he notices people’s vulnerabilities.

“A-anyways… I d-don’t like seeing Y-Yamamoto so d-down… he’s… I really a-admire him so…”

“You should make him your subordinate,” Reborn smirks though internally he’s still evaluating Yamamoto’s reliability.

“NO way, Reborn! He’s a normal guy, he shouldn’t get involved in all this!”

“Then don’t give away your pendants so easily. People will get the wrong idea.”

“ _Reborn!_ I’ll give them to who I want!”

Isn’t that the problem?

0

Tsuna asks Nana about it later. “Ah, this necklace?” Nana lifts it up and fiddles with it as she always does when she seems nervous. When she’s trying to find an answer. “It’s a charm. Your granny gave it to me when I was small. She said to keep it with me always because it would protect me. It’s Mama’s treasure.”

He stares at it and wonders.

0

Some kids arrive. Lambo. I-Pin. Bianchi arrives too along with Shamal. And then the boxer Ryohei crashes into Tsuna’s life along with Haru, Kyoko and Hana. Tsuna gives them all his pendants, as freely as one would offer water to the thirsty.

For Lambo, Tsuna gives a bull-shaped pendant with a lightning mark carved on it. I-Pin receives a flower shaped pendant with a star in the engraved on it. For Bianchi, a scorpion with hearts in the middle and Shamal gets a beetle shaped one with the universal symbol for health care engraved on it’s shell… a snake wrapped around a cross with wings.

Lambo claims his subordinate’s gift with glee, saying he loves cows and enjoys showing it off to whoever will listen. Sometimes Reborn swears that he sees orange fire within the glass but knows it’s probably a glint of light. A flash. Lambo grabs onto the pendant a lot when he’s scared and says it reminds him of Tsuna-nii… nice and warm.

Even Future-Lambo still wears the pendant, giving Tsuna a soft but sad smile whenever he appears. He never fails to embrace Tsuna and thank him for everything. The way he acts puts Reborn on edge because it’s a sign that he’s right, the mafia will eat Tsuna up alive because he’s too kind and if Reborn doesn’t beat out that kindness now then—

No. No, he’s the greatest tutor the mafia has. Tsuna will become a boss that survives and Reborn doubles his training, doubles his harsh words.

I-pin likes to look at her pendant within the light and says it’s as pretty as a diamond but she’s practically blind without glasses so Reborn shrugs off her taste. Bianchi is always moved by anything that’s ‘made with love’ and accepts Tsuna as Reborn’s student as soon as she gets the pendant while Shamal shrugs the pendant off but keeps it on. The man never gets gifts so Reborn can tell he’s touched by this personal gift from his future boss.

Ryohei receives a pendant after Tsuna rejects the boxing club offer and he screams that he’ll _extremely_ wear it to every match from now on. His pendant is shaped like the sun with a raised fist engraved in it. He tells Tsuna that the pendant makes him feel more extreme and pumped than ever and that he feels like he can get punched without getting bruises when he tackles thugs in the neighbourhood.

Haru gets a pendant in the shape of a diamond with a wand etched into it while Kyoko receives a sun shaped pendant like her brother’s except with an etching of ballet shoes. Both girls wear the pendant along with other cute accessories, making a fashion statement out of otherwise unappealing looking jewelry.

Every time, Tsuna gives away his pendants, Reborn can’t figure out when or where or _how_ Tsuna makes them. He hears a lot of crying in the bathroom. A lot of flushing. Tsuna gets sick more often as the year passes. Colds. Flus. Fevers.

Smoking Bomb and the kids always bury Tsuna in blankets and try to feed him inedible soup they made themselves or that Bianchi brought up while Reborn stays by Tsuna’s window sill, watching his student toss and turn in bad dreams. Vulnerable. Trusting. Reborn reaches in his pocket and pulls out his pendant.

“Get better soon, idiot-Tsuna,” he says to the pendant. “I don’t know how, but you keep getting subordinates with your kindness. At this rate, you’ll give a pendant to a serial killer and get yourself stabbed. Stupid.”

The pendant is warm in his hand but he thinks he sees Tsuna smile so that will have to be good enough.

“So you kept it after all,” a voice says from the door and Reborn nearly shoots at the target before he realizes its Nana. That woman is sneakier than reports suggest. He scowls internally, making a note to recheck Nana’s background search again.

“I’m a gentleman,” he says instead, “I don’t throw away a gift.”

“Good,” she smile sternly, the first time they’ve had an actual conversation since that tense morning. “Tsu-kun… he… he puts a lot of himself in those pendants and when people just use him or throw them away… well…” she frowns, “I can’t forgive that.”

Reborn frowns. He can imagine it now. Little Tsuna hurting himself as he makes glass pendants, offering them to other children he talks to. Getting rejected. Glass pendants falling to the ground, broken. Children are cruel. He tilts his fedora up at Nana, sees her calculating gaze.

“…I’m his tutor,” he says carefully, not wanting to reveal any emotional attachment but not wanting to be rude either.

She looks at him for a long time before her shoulders relax and she smiles sadly at him. “And I’m his mother.”

They say no more and she doesn’t look as disapproving anymore when he puts the pendant back in his pocket.

0

That night, he tries to make his first charm. His first heart shard.

Things don’t go well.

He’s curious. He’s almost certain that Nana’s necklace is a piece of Granny’s heart and that it must have powers if it protects her! He wants to make one too, a necklace to make Nana happy and maybe stop the little holes from appearing in her heart. Lately the cracks in Nana’s heart have been chanting a name, one that Nana whispers when she’s cooking in the kitchen alone and she’s caught up in her hearts. _Iemitsu_ , they seem to call, _Iemitsu, Iemitsu._

Surely there must be a charm (because that’s what the necklace is, isn’t it? A charm?) to make Nana smile again, feel less lonely. Even if he has to pull it out of his own heart too, he wants to make a charm that will make her feel warm when she’s lonely. A charm she can whisper her burdens to. A charm that might whisper back that _it’s okay_ to her.

He glares down at the floating orange heart that accompanies him everywhere and claps his hands together. He’s not sure how this works but maybe if he prays, if he thinks hard enough than he can pull out a shard from his heart and—

“Ouch!” Tsuna’s head hits the wall as he feels the first crack form. It hurts. Everywhere. More than when he fell down the stairs. More than when Mochida-sempai pushed him into a tree. Like he’s trying to take one of those hospital scalpels and dig into chest except the pain has spread to every inch of his skin, underneath his skin, every little part like wildfire.

He hisses and pulls his hands back, not willing to try that again. When his vision steadies enough for Tsuna to peek down at his heart, he sees the heart _burning_ within the most vivid orange flames and if he could back away from his own heart… he would.

0

_Tsu-kun… he… he puts a lot of himself in those pendants and when people just use him or throw them away… well… I can’t forgive that._

Reborn finds that he can’t forgive that either. He watches Yamamoto make another successful pitch and makes a plan to test Yamamoto’s eligibility to be the Rain Guardian.

He steals Yamamoto’s pendant and then he waits.

0

The pain eventually numbs away but his heart, it won’t stop _burning_ and Tsuna feels afraid to try making a pendant again. Is he going to die? He’s never seen anyone’s heart burn before! Sure, Granny’s heart is always surrounded by lightning lately but that never seems to harm her. The shard of a heart that she has hasn’t degraded and keeps its shape but Tsuna’s heart, well, Tsuna can hardly see its shape anymore. Just fire.

He wants to ask Nana to take him to see Granny but he doesn’t want Nana to worry. More holes might appear. Holes because of him. How often has Tsuna heard the croons in Nana’s heart drop down to diminished sevenths because of his grade? How often has he heard their strangled sad melody?

No, he has to go alone. Even if it’s scary. This is for Mama. She has to smile again. And if he’s really dying than it’s better for her to think that he’s missing than to see him burn up because he accidentally set his own heart on fire.

He tells her that he’s going to a friend’s house and Nana looks so happy about Tsuna getting a friend that Tsuna practically zooms outside in shame. What a liar he is.

The flames seem to cackle above his chest, mocking him.

0

When Yamamoto wakes and notices that the pendant is gone, he turns his room upside down just to find it. Reborn watches carefully as Yamamoto nearly misses class because the pendant is missing but the potential Guardian does rush to school eventually (likely from fear of the Hibari brat, another potential Guardian but one step at a time.)

In homeroom, Yamamoto acts as if nothing is wrong. Greeting Tsuna as usual (thus inciting rage from Smoking Bomb) and then moving to join his teammates in conversation. Only the emptiness in his eyes gives away his worry.

He loses the baseball match that evening. And the next. And the next. His pitches lull. Yamamoto continues smiling but he doesn’t ask Tsuna for another pendant. Not yet.

Instead Yamamoto practices more, into the night, relying on his own strength which is admirable in a way. But foolish because of how Yamamoto carelessly treats his own arms. Too much drive. Too much bending to other students’ expectations. Not ideal for a Guardian but… there’s something else pushing Yamamoto to act this recklessly.

Reborn frowns and decides to wait and see which moves Yamamoto plays next.

The next day, Yamamoto comes to school with a broken arm. He doesn’t bother greeting his friends or attending home room. He goes to the rooftop and stares down at the world below and that’s when Reborn realizes that he’s made a tactical mistake and that he _didn’t even recognize the signs_ but it’s too late as another student spots Yamamoto climbing over the fence and begins hollering the news to the rest of the school.

Students crowd in by the waves, shouting at Yamamoto to stop joking, to get away from the fence but none of them come near. “Who will win our matches?” one of them demands and Reborn wants to shoot that fool as Yamamoto’s smile becomes colder. They treat the fence and Yamamoto as if he has a disease and they’ll be infected to if they dare step any closer.

Yamamoto, like Reborn, notices and his laughs towards them are dry and bitter. “It’s too late,” he says, “if I can’t play baseball,” _if I can’t pretend to be one of you_ , he means, “then I have no reason to keep going.”

He turns back to the edge and everyone yells at him to stop the joke. Stop the game. Silly fools. It’s always a game for people like Reborn or Yamamoto. A game to find the next reason to keep playing.

But then Tsuna falls through the wall of people, out of breath, knees shaking. Smoking Bomb is nowhere to be seen (honestly, he needs to be more vigilant when watching his future boss or someone will kidnap Tsuna. If Smoking Bomb needs to restock dynamite so badly, he should have bullied someone to buy them for him.) People begin whispering that Dame-Tsuna has come and will probably make things worse and if Reborn happens to make a few students stumble because of some pellet-bullets from his pellet-gun then it’s nothing but a coincidence.

Yamamoto, though, he almost steps back as if repelled by Tsuna and Reborn narrows his eyes.

“Tsu—Sawada, what are you…?”

“Y-Yamamoto, p-please step away f-from there!” Tsuna inches closer, hands close enough to reach but Yamamoto slaps them away, making the fence rattle.

“No! Don’t come near!”

“But—”

“Have you come to pity me too? Loser Yamamoto. You’d understand what it’s like. I thought I found a way to be good at baseball again with your little pendant but then I lost it. I don’t even have that anymore. Even though you made it for me. I lost it. I’m lower than even you now. Can’t even use your magic properly.”

“ _That’s not true!_ ” Tsuna shouts before he claps a hand over his mouth in shock. It’s the first time Reborn’s ever heard Tsuna shout and from the silence on the rooftop, it’s the first time anyone’s heard Tsuna raise his voice.

Yamamoto narrows his eyes. “Oh?” the amount of bitterness, of subtle killing intent, has Reborn on edge, ready to shoot and fuck it if Yamamoto is Rain Guardian material, “You think you’re better than me?”

“ _NO!_ ” Tsuna shouts again and then he says quickly, more gently, “you’re the one who’s better. You’ve always been better. You feel empty and sad and your eyes don’t match your smile but you keep doing your best and you have something that you love. Baseball. I admire that about you. I always have. When I look at you, at your heart, I feel hopeful that maybe I’ll find something that I can live for too!”

The faith in Tsuna’s eyes, the conviction there, makes Yamamoto’s fingers let go of the fence and even Reborn feels taken back by Tsuna’s words. “You… admire…?”

“Yes, yes I do. I still do. I think you’re really cool and I like your smile when you’re doing a pitch and you look really alive. And I’m sorry,” _what_ , Reborn and Yamamoto think, “I’m so sorry that you’ve been suffering this whole time and I didn’t notice. Or maybe I didn’t want to notice. But you don’t need a pendant to make you better. You’re already good enough. So please, _come over here_. If you’re sad or upset, you can come talk to me… um, or someone else, since I’m no good. But please. _Please_. Don’t jump. Please don’t jump.”

A hush ghosts over the rooftop and rattles the fence. Yamamoto stares at Tsuna with strangled disbelief.

“I… I lost the pendant…”

Tsuna blinks at him, his eyes glistening. “…What?”

“The one you made just for me… I lost it and I…”

“It’s just a stupid pendant!” Tsuna shouts again, tears forced out from frustration. They glisten like fire, “I can make another one but no one can make another you!”

That’s the magic word of Tsuna Sawada. The words that flip a switch in Yamamoto as he pushes the fence away and stumbles towards Tsuna, all wide-eyed like a newborn chick when Tsuna grabs onto Yamamoto’s shirt in sobs.

Reborn glares as Tsuna presses himself against Yamamoto’s shirt, as if to memorize the heartbeat, while Yamamoto’s arms cautiously fold over Tsuna’s tiny form.

Another family member acquired. But today, Reborn doesn’t feel any triumph in it.

0

He goes quickly into the elevator and rushes towards Granny’s room before any adults can intercept him. Most adults are pretty unobservant, he finds, but he doesn’t want to risk them asking where his parents are. If Tsuna stays quiet and walks silently enough, most grown-ups don’t see him.

The flames crackle, as if to laugh, and Tsuna winces as some of the sparks make his chest _hurt_ again but he pushes the door open anyways.

Granny lies in the same bed as before, absently toying with her shard of a heart and poking at the jolts of lightning that circle it. When she spots Tsuna, she frowns.

“Did my absent-minded daughter send you up on your own? She should be keeping a better eye on you, kid. You never know what creepers are hanging around hospitals,” she laughs, the sound more like a bark or a strangled goose.

“Um,” Tsuna darts towards her but doesn’t touch the bed. “M-mum’s not h-here… I… I came on my own…”

Granny’s eyes widen and she almost falls off her bed, “You _what_?!”

“P-please don’t be m-mad at h-her! I just, I just wanted t-to make her a n-necklace like y-yours but then my ch-chest hurt and now there’s f-fire and I d-don’t know what to d-do and M-mum said y-you’re the only one who can s-see h-hearts like m-me and I just don’t want to see the h-holes g-get w-worse and—”

“Alright, enough! You babble too much, child!” Granny gently hits his cheek, making Tsuna blink at her in bewilderment. She’s never done that before. She has the most unnerving gaze, calm and yet Tsuna swears there’s lightning storming in her brown irises too.

He ducks his head. “S-sorry…”

“Don’t apologize if you don’t need to. Now let me get a good look at you,” she beckons him forward so she can lean her hands on his shoulders. Her eyes lands on Tsuna’s heart with mild alarm, tracing the flickering embers with a shake of her head.

Her shoulders start shaking and Granny begins to laugh, as if not to laugh would cause an explosion.

“Um… Granny…?” he wonders if he’s going to die after all and if Granny is going hysterical from that.

She shakes her head, a hand running through her long white hair in more chortles. The lightning around her shard of a heart thunders quietly, a small firecracker to accompany the disjointed laughs.

“I guess you can never get rid of our curse once you can see them…” she shrugs. “Well, child, don’t be a stranger. Prop a chair up. Looks like I’ll be teaching you the family trade after all.” Her grip on his shoulders tighten. “May the hearts guide you…” she murmurs like a curse.

0

Yamamoto’s pendant swings in front of Reborn as he glowers at it. All this trouble over this tiny thing. Something that saved Yamamoto’s life and pushed him from suicide, at least for a while, before Reborn stole it to test him.

Is it a crutch or a strength?

He pockets it and trails behind Yamamoto and Tsuna, an unseen observer, listening in to their conversation. The rooftop emptied a long time ago, students losing interest as soon as their idol was saved and it was clear he didn’t want to be separated from Tsuna. Reborn saw the dead glare Yamamoto gave to anyone who tried to pull Tsuna away before he switched back to his smile.

Prey always know when to back away from potential predators.

Tsuna won’t let go of Yamamoto’s sleeve and Yamamoto seems content to let their hands intertwine.

“You… you’re going to be okay,” Tsuna says, though he may be saying it more for Yamamoto than himself.

Still Yamamoto gets a soft look in his eyes as he nods. “Yeah. Hey, I’m really sorry, Tsuna, I was being stupid and…”

“No! Don’t apologize for what you feel. Just promise that you’ll talk to someone you care about before you do anything like that again. I don’t think I could bear it if…”

“Hey,” Yamamoto pulls him close, “I have you now, don’t I? We’re friends, right?”

Tsuna’s eyes go wide. “I… yes. I mean if you want to! I mean, I consider you… but if you… yes!”

Yamamoto hugs him easily again, making Reborn twitch. “And one more thing,” he adds, “about you being _No Good_ , I don’t like it when you say that about yourself. It makes me upset, you know? So don’t say that again.”

Tsuna’s laughter is choked but when he laughs, the pendants in Reborn’s pockets feel light. Warm.

“I’ll make you another pendant!”

“What? Really? But I don’t need it anymore…”

“Look what I found here,” Reborn steps in, Yamamoto’s pendant in hand. The relieved look on Yamamoto’s face and awe on Tsuna’s is almost worth the surprise entrance.

“Aw hey, thanks kid! I thought I lost it forever, ha ha!” Yamamoto steps over to take it.

“You’re a life saver, Reborn,” Tsuna agrees even though it’s _Yamamoto_ who lost the pendant in the first place.

Reborn frowns and steps out of Yamamoto’s grasp. “Wait. Before you take this back, you should know that idiot-Tsuna put a lot of work into this. It’s one of a kind and something only given to the closest family members,” he ignores Tsuna’s protests to the contrary, “it means he _trusts_ you. Don’t lose it again.”

“I won’t,” Yamamoto replies and his gaze carries a resolve that Reborn’s seen in himself before, the first time he ever swore loyalty to a Sky. To Luce. Before she betrayed them all. Before she died. A true Sky is a needle in a haystack, a true treasure that he thought he’d found in her. Tsuna… Tsuna is the real deal and Reborn won’t let any hasty Guardians break him.

The other pendant, _Reborn’s_ pendant, burns in his pocket again and Reborn doesn’t fight the urge to reach in and grab it anymore. He gives Yamamoto the sword pendant back and Yamamoto puts it on right away. Gives the pendant a short kiss.

“Thank you,” Yamamoto says.

And Reborn has a feeling that Yamamoto knows exactly what happened with his pendant for the past few weeks. A natural hitman, alright. And now a loyal Rain Guardian who sees only his famiglia.

They’re all flocking to Tsuna with hardly any pushing from Reborn. And they want to stay. No deals or manipulations required. Only words. That stupid compassion.

But as Tsuna stares at Reborn with such gratefulness, Reborn’s not sure anymore if it’s a weakness. It’s terrifying.

0

“You must only give the pendants to people you care about it. People you truly want to protect. Make them sparingly,” Granny warns.

That sounds easy enough. Tsuna doesn’t have any friends. Only Nana. And maybe Papa if he comes back (but only after he apologizes a thousand times to Nana.) Granny too, now. That doesn’t seem like too much.

“Do you understand, child?” Granny presses again. “Making heart shards into pendants can hurt you. Every time you make one, a little of your life force fades away. You become more prone to illness. And if people find your heart shards and break them, you could die.”

Tsuna nods. Every super power has to have a price. This seems reasonable enough. Besides, he’s only seven! He has a lot of years left!

Granny sighs when she sees him blink at her.

“This is wrong… you’re so young, you think you know everything! Fine, why don’t I tell you a story instead? About how our family started seeing hearts and making heart shards. Maybe then, you’ll understand.”

0

Smoking Bomb hates Yamamoto on sight, his position as Tsuna’s Right Hand and Meaning threatened. Reborn can understand Smoking Bomb’s view. Yamamoto is very tactile with Tsuna, always throwing an arm around him and reassuring him that he’s alright. It’s irritating. The devotion in Yamamoto’s actions are enough to rival Smoking Bomb’s, which is ideal for a Guardian, but Reborn still wants to test them both. They may be loyal to Tsuna but are they _capable_ of protecting him?

For now, it seems they can set aside their differences to protect their boss and they respect each other but the rivalry is still there.

They’ll need to be tested again. Against real opponents and then Reborn has to see just how loyal Smoking Bomb can be to _Tsuna’s_ wellbeing rather than the Vongola’s. He’ll need to call Dino.

To his irritation, Dino laughs when Reborn calls in the favour. “Wow, I don’t remember you being so rigorous when testing my subordinates! You had me test them myself! Something different about the Decimo candidate?”

Reborn pauses. “Come see for yourself,” he hangs up, leaving Dino spluttering.

In the meantime, it seems that Tsuna as attracted another potential Guardian without any pushing from Reborn. Hibari has been hanging around Tsuna’s classroom before dismissal. Yamamoto and Smoking Bomb usually guard both sides of Tsuna, blocking him from view of any bullies but today, Hibari scowls at the two herbivores to back away from the Little Bird so they might speak alone.

Interesting. Reborn jumps onto Tsuna’s shoulder just as Tsuna reassures Smoking Bomb that Hibari means no harm. Smoking Bomb grumbles but stands guard by the door while Yamamoto gives a cold smile to Hibari and puts a reassuring hand on Tsuna’s arm before he joins Smoking Bomb.

Hibari glances at Reborn and shrugs. So the presence of ‘infants’ are acceptable to him then. Hm.

“Um… s-so you wanted t-to talk to me a-about something, H-Hibari-sempai?”

“Your pendant.”

Tsuna’s jaw drops. “You mean, you still have it?”

“Tch,” Hibari digs a wing-shaped pendant with a feather etched on it from beneath the collar of his shirt.

“W-wow, I… I didn’t think… t-thank—”

“Don’t waste your time with tedious thanks, Little Bird. I hate idle chatter. I’m only here to inform you that your _charm_ did its task admirably when I was biting some misbehaving herbivores to death earlier. You have my thanks. As repayment, I won’t bite you to death next time you are tardy to class. Only once.”

Tsuna blushes and starts to stutter.

“Quiet. Or I’ll change my mind,” Hibari grumbles as he turns away.

“I… I know you don’t like it, but thank you anyways! Really, thank you! I’m… I’m so glad it helped!”

Hibari pauses at the end of the hallway but gives a small nod of acknowledgement. For a moment, Reborn thinks he sees a _smile_ , however shallow, a rare sight on a creature like Kyouya Hibari. But then the prefect is gone.

“Well, well, well… you have some worthy connections after all, Dame-Tsuna…” Reborn murmurs, “and were you going to tell me that you gave Hibari a pendant, hm?”

“Ow, ow, ow! That’s my hair!”

“I know.”

“Mou, Reborn, you’re so mean,” Tsuna grumbles. “You never asked. It happened a long time ago.”

“Do tell,” he jumps down and transforms Leon into a gun, making a show of clicking at the trigger.

By now, Tsuna only rolls his eyes instead of shrieking away. And yet somehow, it’s just as amusing to Reborn.

Tsuna crouches down so that they’re almost eye level.

“I was eight and being bullied when he saved me and I wanted to thank him so I gave him the pendant but I was too scared to give it to him directly so I mailed it and he never wore it so I thought he hated it.” Tsuna breaks into a slow smile. “I can’t believe he kept it all this time… usually people just…”

Reborn’s eyes narrow and Leon practically itches for a person to shoot. “Usually…?”

“Ah, well, they usually just throw them away. Or break them. I’m not very good at making—”

“Then they were stupid. Be glad you’re not associated with them anymore.”

“… _Really_?”

Tsuna freezes, his emotions exposed and vulnerable for Reborn to dissect. Reborn wishes he could hunt down every soul who damaged this boy so and shatter them in the same way they shattered Tsuna’s pendants.

Quietly, Reborn reaches into his pocket and pulls out his own pendant. “Really.” He puts the pendant back. It’s not declaring allegiance. It’s not. He’s just comforting a barely put-together Sky, a true one. Anyone would. It’s a Flame’s basic instinct.

But then Tsuna reaches out, his fingers just ghosting over Reborn’s small arm in a gentle touch before Tsuna snatches it away and murmurs a quiet thank you.

Reborn’s arm feels cold as he hops back on Tsuna’s shoulder. He does not let himself yearn. His pacifier is as heavy as the pendant in his pocket. He _can’t._

0

Once, there was a woman who could see people’s hearts. If a soul was crying on the inside, she was cursed to hear it and do nothing. If a soul was bitter and angry but walking with a lying but smiling face, she was forced to hear it, see it, and do nothing.

 _Why do people hide what’s in their hearts?_ she wondered. _Why must they suffer and pretend to be happy?_

_I wish I could be happy for them. I wish I could take their holes and cracks and fill them up with my own shards._

But alas, humans cannot take on another soul’s pain. They can only watch and try to help as much as they can.

 _And if you could take another human’s burden? If you could ease the pain of those you loved?_ a voice asked from behind her, _what would you pay?_

The woman turned around and saw a man with a checkered mask arise from the shadows, his smile as chilling as snow. But she was too excited to be afraid.

 _Anything_ , she said. _I want to help them all_.

The checked-mask man only bowed and told her. _Your price will last hundreds of generations. All your children will suffer to be kind. Or become cruel not to suffer. Is this what you want?_

 _Yes,_ she nodded, mad from the symphonies and symphonies of agony she’s heard for years on end, _please, yes._

_Every time you offer someone a heart shard of your own heart, you will lose your life span. You will be victim to illness. Your heart will shrink and fall apart._

_I don’t care,_ she replied. Anything to stop the agony symphonies.

 _So kind_ , the Checkered-Mask man waved his hand. _But there’s more! If they do not accept your shards, you will feel as if you’ve been stabbed. Scars will form on your chest for each rejecting, each time your shards are shattered into more shards. A scar for each one. They will never heal._

 _Of course,_ she agreed. Anything to stop seeing colours being ruined by other colours.

 _So noble,_ the Checked-Mask man tipped his mask. _And yet, most terrible of all, you must mutilate yourself to tear each heart shard out. You must cry the same amount of tears the soul that the shard is created for will cry in their life time. You will bleed out the amount of blood they’ll bleed in their lifetime. You’ll experience their pain in your dreams and illness. You will suffer so they may suffer less._

 _If they feel less burdened then I will do it,_ she promised. Anything to stop herself from reaching out to touch people’s hearts in order to heal them but instead, causing them more pain.

_And if you do not meet this quota. Your descendant will keep seeing hearts. They will keep making shards. They will keep going until your strongest descendent has enough vitality to help me in return. They will return to me. Is this what you want?_

Mad from all the pain she could hear in the world, she said yes.

They say that her tears became blood within a month of the curse because she made so many pendants and had no more of her heart to give. They say that she was so mad that the Checkered-mask man had to father a child with her to keep the promise and continue the line. They say that when she finally gave up her last heart shard, her body faded away into dust and flame and never returned.

That’s why we don’t give away all of heart, child. That’s why we have to keep some shards for yourself.

Don’t lose yourself, child. Don’t love too much. You’ll become dust and flame in the end, do you promise me?

0

Tsuna promises.

But it’s the kind of promise he can’t keep.


	2. Part 2: Heart Pieces

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the late update, real life has been crazy. 
> 
> This story will now be 4 parts instead of 2. I also play around with the timeline and canon a lot, so apologies there. I hope you like it!

“…I’ve become too soft,” Reborn says quietly.

His audience consists of the still, sleeping forms of Tsuna, Leon, the kids, and the damned pacifier around his neck. Tsuna lays as docile as a fluffy lamb, unaware of Death practically manifested in an infant’s body, ready to kill Tsuna at any time if he chose. The use of cliché metaphor itself is yet another sign of the illness plaguing Reborn. This stupid heart of his won’t stop _aching_ and if Reborn could rip that useless muscle out and crush it, he would.

(Someday, he’ll eat those words when he learns what the pendants really are.)

Leon just licks at Reborn’s hand in disagreement. If Colonello was here, he’d say that it’s sad that a chameleon of all things has more empathy than Reborn. Then Reborn would shoot him. Honestly, Reborn could use something to shoot. Anything to remind him of what he is. A hitman. And _why_ he is what he is.

(Boredom. Amusement. The ease of the trigger blocking out the past he vowed to forget.)

A soft murmur from Tsuna has Reborn wanting to pry open his student’s skull and find out what makes him tick. Especially when Tsuna tosses and turns like that, as if he’s drowning on dry land and no one can pull him out. But then the brats will whimper from the movement and sleeping Tsuna will go still, arms pulling Lambo and I-Pin closer to himself in an unconscious gesture.

Reborn scowls.

He needs to distance himself. Be crueler. Someday Tsuna will be the Decimo. Someday, Tsuna will change, as they all do when they enter the mafia world.

Tsuna won’t stay this way forever. Reborn will be out of his life before he can watch the soft Tsuna he knows be locked away in favour of distant cruelty.

0

Something wet falls down Tsuna’s cheeks and he tries to wipe it away. But the wetness keeps falling over his face like a scar. It sounds so scary, the tale of the woman and the Checkered-mask man. Tsuna doesn’t know why but for a moment, he thought he _was_ the woman. Burning up. Being forgotten by all but her family.

He glances down at the burning orange heart floating over his own chest, pictures that fire engulfing him instead, and shivers.

“You’re not going to burn up, child.” Granny pokes him in the forehead, her expression moving from soft to stern. “Not if I can help it. So stop thinking of such silly things!”

“B-but,” Tsuna rubs his forehead, “y-you said if w-we give too much of o-our hearts away, w-we burn up!”

“Only if you’re foolish enough to give _all_ of your heart. Which you won’t. Keep as much of your heart as you can, just like you promised me. Otherwise you can forget learning how to make pendants. I will tell your mother _exactly_ what happens when we make pendants and she’ll stop you every time you try.”

“Ah!” Tsuna shakes his head furiously. He doesn’t want that to happen. He _has_ to make a pendant for Mama, even if it hurts. Nana cries so much on the inside when she thinks no one is listening. Sometimes Tsuna hears her heartsong in his dreams. Lonely. Looking for Papa.

He thinks he can understand part of why the woman wanted to make pendants. To ignore the sad heartsongs of others would be to go deaf. Tsuna doesn’t want to live like that.

Granny’s eyes soften and she sighs. “Come here, child.” She opens her arms.

When Tsuna sees her shard of a heart sparkle, even under the lightning that surrounds it, he climbs onto the bed and hesitantly leans against her. Granny pulls him close; she smells of hospital liquids and mint. The mint reminds him of Nana and he can see then, how Granny is related to her.

“Those flames you see around your heart… they’re like my lightning… see? Harmless. They only appear when you’re determined about something. Determined enough to risk your heart. They won’t hurt you.”

“B-but…!”

Granny’s barking laughter is so loud that Tsuna’s surprised the room doesn’t shake. “I guess lightning and fire can be scary for a small thing like you, huh? Don’t worry. When I was your age and I saw lightning surround my heart, I fell off my bed and got a scar on my elbow! But look! Even though your flames and heart are so close to you, they don’t feel hot, do they? See? Perfectly safe. They’re _your_ flames and heart. They won’t burn you or anyone you care about.”

Now that Tsuna’s breathing is normal, the orange hues from his heart do look kind of pretty. Almost as bright as Ryohei and Kyoko’s hearts. But warmer. Comforting. He doesn’t hear the mocking tones from the flames anymore. Just a cautious fear that he recognizes as _his_. His emotions. His fears and hopes.

Tsuna buries himself back in Granny’s arms, murmuring a ‘thank you’. Granny doesn’t say anything in reply to that. She already knows.

“Still want to make pendants?”

He stills but nods into her shoulder.

“I won’t stop you,” she whispers against his head. “You’ve inherited your Grandpa Ogata’s stubbornness and your mother’s naivety. Hell, you even have my stupid compassion. Family curse, that is. But I’ll be here to remind you to be safe. And yell at you when you’re not. I promise you this.”

Tsuna doesn’t understand what she means but he can hear Granny’s shard of a heart hum a gentle lullaby, as if to reassure him and for the first time, he feels safe with another person besides Nana.

“You won’t be like that woman…” Granny whispers, “I swear I will make sure you keep your heart.”

0

Ignoring Tsuna (being crueler) should be easy.

Reborn doesn’t respond to Tsuna’s idle ramblings in the morning except for a polite ‘good morning’ and ‘get to school.’ He doesn’t look at Tsuna either, relying on his instincts to gauge Tsuna’s mood. Tsuna seems confused at first, even looking concerned when he looks at Reborn but Reborn brushes off any of Tsuna’s inquiries. It should be easy but Reborn has to bite his own tongue every time a sarcastic remark bubbles up in response to everything Tsuna does. Another part of him wonders how long he’s been like this, so eager to tease and get a reaction from Tsuna at every opportunity.

It will be easier this way, when they have to part ways, if Reborn reinforces a civil-yet-distant working relationship between them. Like taking off a bandage, better to be quick and painful about it then suffer slowly.

Except he suddenly realizes that his eyes follow Tsuna all the time when Tsuna isn’t aware of it. He’s just being a diligent tutor. He _needs_ to notice everything. A temporary bodyguard until the boy gathers his guardians. Nothing strange about it. But he knows too well that he never watched Dino this closely and he has an urge to scream when he nearly laughs every time Tsuna flails over the newest video game when they walk past a store because his student’s reactions always prove to bring _some kind_ of response from him and _no one is supposed to be able to play the World’s Greatest Hitman like this._

Damn it. Reborn scowls. Hunches himself inwards. He doesn’t _care_. This is just a way to deal with tedium and pass the time until the end of the curse (if there is an end) and nothing more.

He continues like this for the rest of the week. By then, Tsuna’s noticed Reborn’s cold attitude and begun retreating back into a polite wall that Reborn didn’t realize Tsuna hid behind until that pendant conversation with Hibari. Tsuna smiles at him still (which makes Reborn wants to scream that Tsuna is a kind idiot) but he doesn’t look Reborn in the eyes anymore. Just at the pacifier.

Smoking Bomb and Yamamoto pick up on Reborn’s distance and try to fill Tsuna’s days with boisterous chatter. Smoking Bomb, certainly, respects Reborn far too much to suggest that Reborn is mistreating Tsuna in any way but his actions are more wary and closed-off when he reports to him. He smokes more around Reborn, watching him carefully. Reborn almost wants to scoff. The brat is too much of an amateur to read _him_ of all people.

Yamamoto, though, isn’t careful about showing his unease at all. He watches Reborn with sharp eyes, leans closer to Tsuna and makes sure to always walk between them when Reborn ignores yet another concerned inquiry from Tsuna.

Usually this distracts Tsuna, but not today. Tsuna pokes his head from beneath Yamamoto’s arm and says quietly, “…Hey Reborn… did I do something to… upset you?”

“ _What?!_ ” Smoking Bomb practically explodes. “No! Of course not! Tenth is perfect! You couldn’t possibly have done anything to upset Reborn-san!”

“Yeah,” Yamamoto pulls Tsuna closer. “The kid is just having a bad day, isn’t he?” Yamamoto stares at Reborn, as if daring him to contradict.

For a moment, Reborn considers his answer. He could be cold. Insult Tsuna. That would definitely create distance. No. _No_. Tsuna’s a fragile Sky still. Needs more self-confidence. He could ignore this, as always, but Yamamoto’s exhibiting more killer-intent than usual and even Smoking Bomb looks wary despite Reborn having the ‘honourable’ title of his beloved Tenth’s tutor. Dissonance between Reborn and the guardians wouldn’t be good because…

Leon bites at Reborn’s collar and Reborn doesn’t scowl. He’s hesitating. Fucking _hesitating_. He never does that. Not with prey.

“It’s nothing,” he very nearly snaps. “You’ve done nothing.”

“O-oh… I see… w-well, I’m glad,” Tsuna stutters unconvincingly. Reborn can practically feel Tsuna’s shoulders droop and he almost regrets it (except he never regrets anything) but this is _necessary_. This has to be done.

Smoking Bomb laughs nervously, muttering, ‘see, Tenth?’ with a bright smile only reserved for his Sky while Yamamoto stares darkly at Reborn before ushering Tsuna to school by the hand and Reborn forces himself to watch Tsuna walk away.

This is what he wants. This is what he needs.

But as Tsuna starts avoiding Reborn’s gaze, he thinks he feels the weight in his pocket become cold.

0

Granny’s hugs are warm and Tsuna swears he feels her shard of a heart emitting a thunder-chorus of _will-protect-yous_ and _always_ , as if the shard is pressing a protective hand against his head. It’s nice. So comforting for something so small… but wait…!

“What about you, Granny?” Tsuna pulls away, staring at her shard of a heart in alarm. So small. Barely a sliver, really. Like an iron nail.

“What? This ugly thing?” she gestures to her heart. “Don’t worry about me. I’m old. I’ve lived my life.”

“B-but…!”

“No,” she glares sternly, “and don’t you dare try going to fix it! I dug my own grave and I’m gonna lie in it. This broken thing,” she points to her shard of a heart again, “is due to my own foolishness. Nothing your young soul needs to worry about.”

Her shard of a heart agrees full-heartedly with strangled screeches of violins and the snapping of harp strings. Tsuna wants to throw up at the sound of pain from her and can’t help but whimper.

“You… you say that, Granny… b-but doesn’t it hurt…?”

Granny’s quick eyes still and shimmer at once. “Don’t be silly. I’m fine,” she lies as her shard of a heart protests with stronger screeches that she is not. Screeches hidden under the thunderous lightning cloaking her shard of a heart. Her orchestra and heartsong have been falling apart for years and Tsuna can hear the tired instruments screaming for someone to listen. Just listen.

And as he looks at Granny now, the strong picture she’s always played in front of him and Nana’s image are suddenly overlapped by the lonely (raging) piece that breaks into Tsuna’s head and Tsuna—

“Oh? What’s this? What are you crying for, child?” she asks, slightly alarmed before becoming more hopeful, “Did you decide to change your mind about making pendants?”

He sniffs. Shakes his head. “No… I can… I can hear you, Granny.”

She pauses. Chuckles. “Nonsense—“

“I can _hear you,_ ” Tsuna protests, “and you’re lonely,” her heartsong goes startlingly silent, “it _hurts_ , it really does, and I’m so sorry, Granny. I’m sorry making pendants has made you sad.”

Granny’s eyes are so wide. “Child…”

“B-but I’m here n-now! And I can listen! At least, I’ll d-do my best! I won’t always understand and I’ll probably make you more sad b-because I want to t-try making pendants too! You don’t see it, Granny, but Mama loves your pendant! S-she calls it her treasure and w-when her h-heart goes sad, y-your pendant cheers her up. I know it! Mama gets sad a lot lately… so I want to c-cheer her up too. Just like you do. I think… something like that, well, it’s not ‘foolishness’!”

Her heartsong is so silent that Tsuna’s scared that he made it mute forever. There’s nothing worse than the silence of a heart, nothing besides the colour of white (death). But then Tsuna hears the slight tremors of violin strings being coaxed back into place and the sad flute he first heard from his first meeting with Granny returning as a shy, tentative tune.

“…Granny…?”

She doesn’t lift her head but her arms go around him and Tsuna feels his shoulders getting wet but that’s alright because when she laughs, this time, her heartsong’s flute laughs with her.

“It’s definitely foolishness…” she whispers, “but maybe that’s not always a bad thing.”

0

“…Where’s Tsuna?” Reborn asks Nana. He’s been keeping his distance but watching Tsuna’s progress through cameras and high places. Shooting Dying-Will bullets when needed. Giving short lectures. Nothing more.

But Tsuna’s managed to slip his watch. Reborn tries not to wonder what else Tsuna has hidden from him. (like the pendants and when the hell Tsuna has time to make them.) They haven’t been talking lately beyond the required morning greetings. Tsuna used to try and invite Reborn to play video games with him and the kids but Reborn always declines. These days, Tsuna doesn’t dare ask and Reborn grits his teeth at the _lack_ he feels.

“Ah, he went to pick up a few things for me from the store,” Nana says. “You should join him, Reborn. If you neglect someone for too long, you’ll regret it!”

Reborn tenses at Nana’s perceptive remark but she just smiles innocently at him.

“…I’m not neglecting him,” he remarks; his pride won’t let such accusations stain his reputation. “I’m giving him space. Room to grow.”

Nana only hums at him. She cuts her green onions with louder thwacks. “Tsu-kun… has had lots of space. Too much really. He’s done all the growing he can, alone.”

Reborn frowns and fights the urge to hold the pendant in his pocket.

He goes to the store. Not to look for Tsuna, of course. They’re running out of coffee and no one in the Sawada household seems to drink caffeine from anything but tea.

If he happens to decide to take a turn into the park just as he sees a familiar fluff of hair, then only Leon can accuse anything from him but his partner is only silently pleased.

Tsuna’s sitting on the swings, staring at that strange ( _dangerous_ , Reborn’s instincts claim) shard from his grandmother, holding it carefully by its chain. Both the shard and the swings rock slowly in the same rhythm, like the shard possesses the soul of the wind itself. Silly to think that.

“…I don’t know what to do…” he thinks he hears Tsuna whisper and Reborn wants to throttle whoever put that vulnerable tremble into his voice.

“…what good are these anyways…?” Tsuna continues, gesturing to something Reborn can’t see. “How can I help if he doesn’t want to be helped…?” his fingers curl up in desperate prayer, “I guess I’m useless after all… I’m sorry, Granny. I promised you that I wouldn’t do this but I keep doing it and it never helps anyone and sometimes I wish I didn’t see them anymore because then I wouldn’t _know_ they need to be fixed but _I can’t not know_ …!”

Reborn frowns. His foot moves before he can stop himself except—

“So you’re Tsunayoshi Sawada, the Vongola Decimo. Currently, you’re ranked as number one in the mafia for lacking ambition and number one in being unable to deny a child’s request,” pipes a small child, wrapped in a long scarf and carrying a book too huge for his size. Ranking Fuuta. Reborn frowns. Is Ranking Fuuta looking for protection from the Vongola family?

Tsuna blinks at the child. Confused. “Um… yes? H-how do you…?”

“I’m Ranking Fuuta. Nice to meet you,” he chirps happily. His brow quickly furrows though. “Hmmm. You’re also… ranked number one in… healing people’s hea—?”

“Wait, how do you know that?!” Tsuna stands up quickly, the palest Reborn’s ever seen him. Reborn has Leon turn into a gun and silently scans the area. Ranking Fuuta might be a child but the mafia raises killers young. He would know.

Fuuta tilts his head, pouting. “I can rank anything in the world.”

“Eh…? Rank? I don’t get it…”

“Something like… Tsuna-nii’s favourite foods are ranked as hamburger steaks first, followed by anything made by Nana Sawada!”

“Whoa! T-that’s right! But how…?”

“And Tsuna-nii’s worst fears are, number one, being alone and, number two, rejec—”

“ _That’s really nice, I definitely believe you now, please stop!_ ”

“But—”

“Look, it’s really amazing that you can do this… I just… I’d rather not hear what my rankings are out loud,” Tsuna’s voice falls into a hush. “Um. Thank you, though? I’m honestly blown away that you can do this!”

Fuuta looks startled before he beams back. “I knew I was right to come to you for protection! You’re perfect! Though you’re ranked last for the physically strongest of the Mafioso, your guardians are steadily climbing the ranks as the strongest…!”

“G-Guardians?”

Damn. Reborn might have to do some information control. If Tsuna learns that his allies aren’t only being recruited but assigned as guardians to _protect_ him, he might reject the Vongola all together, because Tsuna’s the type of idiot who doesn’t want people to risk their lives for him—

But before Reborn can intervene, several men in suits rush out of the bushes, shouting, “There he is! Ranking Fuuta!”

They carry guns and the clichéd sunglasses (though cool, they obscure a lot of your vision. Idiots) and there are about a dozen of them, towering over the other children in the park.

“N-no, I won’t go with you!” Fuuta immediately hides behind Tsuna and Tsuna’s eyes widen when he spots their weapons and he sees the other children in the park.

His lips tremble for half a moment, a moment where Reborn gets ready to shoot a Dying Will bullet at his student, before Tsuna’s eyes suddenly become eerily calm ( _like a flame)_ and he shouts, “ _HELP! There are pedophiles here!_ ”

He points wildly to the men hanging hear the slides.

Instantly, all the parents either start phoning the police or scooping up their kids to safety and Tsuna is tugging Fuuta away by the hand, hiding them both behind one of the nearest buildings he can find. Reborn follows closely behind, out of sight, itching to take out the hitmen following behind Tsuna and Fuuta but knowing he can’t because this is another learning opportunity for Tsuna and _Reborn will not encourage this sentiment, damn it!_

But he sees how Tsuna instinctively covers Fuuta with his body, how Tsuna watches for possible exits with his eyes. Part of it is practiced, likely from running from bullies but another part of it seems instinctual. As instinctual as how Tsuna dodged all of Smoking Bomb’s dynamites the first day Smoking Bomb met him, and how Tsuna avoided Bianchi’s poison when he first ran into her…

Almost like Hyper-Dying-Will Mode. But that’s impossible. There are no flames present. No, Tsuna’s just more aware than the old reports on him suggest. His Hyper-Intuition is better than most candidates that Reborn has seen except he always uses it to help people who are trying to hurt him.

Reborn’s grip on his gun is so tight that he can feel the shape of the gun indent itself on his fingers.

“…I think they’re gone…” Tsuna doesn’t relax but he does step away from Fuuta, keeping an eye out at the exits.

Fuuta hugs his book close to himself, eyes fixed to the ground. “They’ll come back… they always do…”

“W-who, who _were_ they?! What did they want from you?!” Tsuna starts to tremble. “You’re just a kid!”

Fuuta only looks at him with a smile that Reborn recognizes in all mafia-raised children. “My rankings.”

“…Eh? But… I don’t understand…”

“If you know an opposing family’s weaknesses and strengths, you can fight them better. Defeat them with ease,” Fuuta recites dutifully, unaware of how quickly Tsuna pales or how Tsuna’s fingers tremble as they clench together into fists. “I should know. My rankings have been sold to the most bloodthirsty Mafioso before…”

“B-but, that’s just… that’s horrible!” Tsuna stumbles backwards. “So they’ve been chasing you all your life?!”

“Well I was kept in a room most of the time—”

“That’s even worse! All because you can’t help what you can see! Those… those… _jerks!_ You’re not going back there!” Tsuna paces with an anger that Reborn hasn’t seen before. It’s different from the time he tried to stop Yamamoto from jumping. There’s a fear in Tsuna’s eyes. The type of fear that isn’t trivial but desperate and _personal_.

But personal how?

Reborn narrows his eyes. He’s starting to see that there is still a lot he doesn’t know about his student and it’s starting to piss him off. His sources are supposed to be thorough and this could be vital to training Tsuna. A lesser man might doubt himself, insist that everyone has their insecurities and Tsuna is too innocent to have secrets but Reborn can’t shake off this stupid _feeling_ and maybe if Reborn finds out this secret then he’ll stop _feeling_ such things around his student entirely.

“…I…” Fuuta’s voice is small, “R-really?”

“Yes! _Yes_ , I’m sure Mama,” Tsuna slips, calling her ‘Mama’ instead of ‘Mum’, “will let you stay with us. You can stay as long as you like.”

“I… I’m really grateful! I swear I won’t be too much trouble, I’ll give you rankings every day—”

Tsuna’s smile falls and he suddenly kneels down in front of Fuuta. Not quite eye-level with him, a little lower, and part of Reborn wants to pulls Tsuna back up because Tsuna should _never_ kneel.

“Hey…” Tsuna says gently, “you don’t need to do that. Only if you _want_ to. But I don’t need anything in return, okay? Sometimes… sometimes people want to help you because it’s the right thing. And sometimes the rest of the world forgets how to do that. But you don’t need to pay me back with anything. You have a good gift. Use it how _you_ want to use it. No one else.”

Reborn’s fingers loosen from the Leon-gun and in that breath, the city seems to hush. No cars move. Not even the trees or the wind. All Reborn can see is the flame in Tsuna’s sad eyes, flickering like blood stains on pavement.

In that breath, Reborn almost wonders if this is what a kind Mafioso would look like, so kind that he bleeds on the inside…

No. Not Tsuna. _Never_. Tsuna’s words reek of previous pain and Reborn hates _not knowing_. Better for Tsuna to become a crueler boss than be hurt.

But as Fuuta tears up and jumps up to tackle Tsuna in a hug and Tsuna flails around, not knowing what to do, Reborn wonders… _is it really?_

Sure enough, at dinner, Reborn sees Fuuta wearing a globe-shaped pendant with a pen etched into the surface, drawing countries onto the surface. Fuuta looks so content by Tsuna’s side that Reborn frowns.

That night, when Tsuna and the kids bond over video games and colouring books, Reborn steals a controller to the Tsuna’s surprise.

“Shove over, Dame-Tsuna,” Reborn grumbles, “I can’t stand to see you play with such terrible technique.”

This is a mistake (just this once). He shouldn’t do this (just this _once_ ). What is he playing _video games_ with the future Decimo for?

But Tsuna’s smile, the _real_ one this time, chases all worries away.

0

“Do you know the English saying, ‘poke a needle in my eye, cross my heart and hope to die’?”

A shiver runs down Tsuna’s spine because the words so feel familiar. An old lullaby maybe? A song that Mama used to sing him?

Granny shakes her head. “You will.”

0

The day Dino is supposed to arrive and test Tsuna’s possible Guardians, Reborn finds a jaw of shards hidden in a shoebox in Tsuna’s closet. He’s initially setting up new (extra) cameras and microphones all over the house because while Dino may be his former student and the Chiavarone family have an alliance with the Vongola, one never knows when a loyalty might switch. Besides, Reborn needs to remind himself that it’s better to be cautious than sorry. He’s been too lenient lately. Weak. A hitman prepares for anything, even from his former students.

The jar is hidden in a shoebox, labelled as ‘fragile, handle with care.’ The shoebox itself is hidden under some wrapped up hakamas and stuffed animals that Reborn makes note to tease Tsuna about later (but then he remembers that he’s trying to keep his distance and he shoots that note away). Naturally, Reborn wants to know that his student is desperate to hide. He ignores the part of him that wants to ask Tsuna about the box first and see his reaction beforehand. Even Leon seems disapproving, sticking his tongue out at Reborn’s fingers in attempt to pry them away.

But Reborn just shushes Leon and whispers, “I’m his tutor but I’m a hitman too. We can’t afford to have any blind spots with our targets.”

Leon only rumbles at him and turns away. Reborn scowls at his partner’s dismissal but pulls open the shoebox anyways. What sits there makes him pause in a half-reverent shock.

Shards. Lots of them in different jagged sizes. Like puzzle pieces and crystallized wounds all gathered in one place. Most of them are the familiar muddy-brown colour of Tsuna’s pendants and when Reborn traces some of the etchings of the shards, he sees faded designs of butterflies and dogs. He sees some other shards mixed in too, different colours and designs than Tsuna’s usual pendants but all the same, Reborn’s shoulders shake and he has an urge to hunt down every last bastard that killed Tsuna’s pendants in such careless manner (as is the duty of a tutor, of course, nothing else about it). He even sees the crumbled dust of glass, slightly glowing like left over embers and he knows he has to find those little bastards…

The door swings open and Reborn hears the familiar clumsy swagger of his first idiot-student.

“…Reborn? Are you there? The Decimo’s mother just sent me up here so…?”

“Do you have one of your subordinates with you?” Reborn demands instead, not wanting to risk Dino shattering anything of Tsuna’s by accident.

“ _Hey!_ Romario is with me right now! Didn’t you hear him? I want to leave a good impression on my fellow student.”

“Hm.” Any good impression that Tsuna gets of Dino will be ruined by Dino’s truly clumsy nature, Reborn bets. Dino is an idiot. But at least he’s tall. Reborn glares down at his small hands and the jar that is half an inch taller than him. Still. Better to get the subordinate to do the job for him.

“Tell Romario to come to the closet. I need him to bring something down to Tsuna’s bed.”

He can sense the looks of confusion that Dino and Romario give each other but nonetheless, Romario walks over to Tsuna’s closet and takes the jar. His sunglasses hide his eyes but his deep frown exposes his confusion as he looks over the shards. But he places the jar down on Tsuna’s pillow, as asked.

Reborn jumps down, making sure to aim for Dino’s head. He snickers as Dino whines about the pain before he joins the jar on the pillow.

Dino tilts his head, his brow scrunched together. “Uh, not that I’m not used to weird things around you, Reborn, _oh my god, don’t shoot me for that please,_ ” he begs when Leon turns into a gun. Good. The boy should remember who’s in charge. “Right,” Dino coughs, continuing on as if he hadn’t squealed like a small child, “just… what is that jar for?”

“Have you met Tsuna yet?” Reborn changes the subject. Best not to say anything about the pendants yet. He wants to observe Dino’s reactions to the gift first (because Tsuna is the type of idiot who will probably make one for Dino as soon as he meets him… along with all of other Chiavarone subordinates.)

“Nope. Came straight here. I want our first meeting to be unexpected but cool,” Dino laughs though Reborn recognizes the contemplative glint of the Chiavarone Boss there. Keep the meeting unexpected and see how the future Decimo reacts, evaluate his character based on his ability to adapt to surprise situations. Dino’s picked up more paranoid ticks from his time as Chiavarone Boss.

(Someday, another part of Reborn whispers, that will be Tsuna too. But Reborn tells that part of him to shut up. That doesn’t matter to him. This is the fate of all children with mafia blood. He needs to stop coddling that child. Needs to be colder or—)

“Oh?” Reborn smirks. “Are you preparing to woo him? So much fretting over one boy…”

“J-just showing s-some solidarity!” Dino laughs nervously. “Anyone who survives being trained by _you_ must be something special. Um. Because you’re the world’s greatest hitman and all,” he adds quickly, just to avoid being shot.

Reborn shoots anyways, just for old time’s sake. Besides, the meeting leaves a bad taste in Reborn’s mouth. Even Dino, with his goofy nature, is subject to the politics of the mafia world. He’s here to make friendly with the potential Vongola heir, get on good terms and evaluate Tsuna’s usefulness for the future. Even if he doesn’t want to admit it and Reborn _knows_ this is the way of the Italian Underworld but he can’t help but feel _irritated_ about it all.

(Will Tsuna learn to do this too? Evaluate human beings by their usefulness to the Vongola? _Shut up, shut up, shut up…! It’s not his business!_ )

“Geez…!” Dino yelps. “You’re as Spartan as ever! What kind of kid is this Decimo then?”

Reborn narrows his eyes. Still asking the same questions, huh? He looks at Dino’s earnest but serious gaze and is reminded, irritatingly enough, of Tsuna and he scowls. “A fool. Rather like you. But not.”

Dino and Romario exchange confused frowns. “What do…?”

The door swings open again and Tsuna rushes in. “Reborn! There’s a bunch of weird guys standing around our house—” he stops, glancing first at Dino then Romario, before his gaze falls on the jar.

Tsuna’s face goes stark pale as he rushes forward to pull the jar away.

But Reborn blocks Tsuna’s path. “Something important about these shards then, Tsuna? Any particular reason you put them away?”

Tsuna actually glares at Reborn, his gaze darting to Dino and Romario quickly before he closes his eyes and asks, “Sorry. I should probably introduce myself but I need to talk to Reborn first. Could you wait outside for a few minutes?”

“Why?” Reborn challenges though he can sense that Tsuna wants these particular shards to remain a secret. Private. Part of him is also annoyed that Tsuna is ordering Dino and Romario around when Reborn wants them here. Wants to evaluate their reactions to Tsuna’s pendant business.

(He has to be colder. Has to cut this affection at the root because someday Tsuna will look at him the same way Dino does, with distant respect and fear and the slight hint of _accusation_ and—)

“For a _private_ conversation,” Tsuna puts on such a dazzling smile that even Reborn’s spine feels a chill.

“Hey, it’s cool. I’ll introduce myself after, then,” Dino nods, grabbing Romario to wait outside the door before Reborn can interfere. He can read the tension.

When the door snaps shut once more, Tsuna’s smile dissolves. “Reborn, where did you find that? Never mind, why did you take it down?! That’s private!”

“Nothing’s private from me. I’m the world’s greatest hitman and tutor, remember? I have to know everything about you. Now, care to explain the meaning behind this jar…?” he pours a little extra killing intent to the last words of the sentence. The subtle hint of darkness that almost always guarantees him an answer his targets.

“That’s not the point!” Tsuna yells at him.

Reborn narrows his eyes. To think that his student has the balls to—

“I trusted you! If you see something like that hidden away, then it’s obviously private and not supposed to be touched!”

This brat. “You’re one hundred years too late to lecture me about trust and etiquette. I’m _your_ tutor. I need to know everything about you. What’s so special about this jar? What are you hiding?”

“That has nothing to do with trust!”

“I don’t do trust,” Reborn says before he can take the words back. If he were a lesser man, he’d be clapping his hands over his mouth but instead he stares steadily at Tsuna as if he meant to say those words all along, never mind the terrible _break_ Reborn sees wash over Tsuna’s face.

Leon bristles on Reborn’s shoulder, disapproving and Reborn fights the urge to flick his partner in the face. He doesn’t do this. He doesn’t let his mouth run away with him. He doesn’t get urges to erase his words or (dare he say it) to flick his student in the forehead and pretend it was all a joke. Tsuna wouldn’t believe him and Reborn’s not the type to trivialize something so… life threatening.

In the mafia, there’s omerta and the rule of subordination and loyalty and blood ties but there is no true trust. Not for a lone hitman with no famiglia to speak of. Trust can kill you. Trust _will_ kill Tsuna, if Reborn’s observations of Future-Lambo are true (and they are, grief can’t be faked) and Reborn isn’t swearing allegiance. He is just ensuring that this Sky survives, even if—

“… _Reborn…_ ”

—Tsuna looks at him like _that_.

“…Trust isn’t something you decide to turn on or off,” comes the soft (unexpected) reply, “it’s something that you _do_.”

Reborn almost does a double take. Because Tsuna doesn’t look broken or hurt or betrayed. No, Tsuna looks… tired.

Somehow that stings in a way that the other expressions never would have.

“Hey, Reborn… I know you have secrets too. I mean, who really believes that you’re a baby? How can a baby become the world’s greatest hitman and gain all those alternative identities that you have? I could ask. But I don’t. And you know why? Because I trust you. I trust you’ll tell me someday, if you feel like you can, or you won’t. I respect you enough to leave you alone. But _you_ … when it’s my secrets… you don’t care at all, do you? I’m just Dame-Tsuna. Decimo candidate. You want to use whatever you can to make me say ‘yes’ to the mafia. You don’t care if I have secrets or not. That’s not trust. That’s… bullying. And I… I _don’t want this_.”

Reborn doesn’t splutter. He doesn’t feel droplets of cold seem to numb up his throat or the numb weight in his pocket. He just glowers at the brat, at Tsuna, while his fingers twitch for a gun. (He doesn’t ask Leon to change but Leon wouldn’t change even if he asked then, now would he?)

“And _what_ do you mean by _that_ , Tsuna?” he asks while his thoughts spin with re-evaluations. That Tsuna suspects, when the curse seems to rewrite reality so that no one ever _asks_ or _truly questions_ the idea of seven infants being the strongest seven human beings in the world. That Reborn’s made a critical error and this could be detrimental to the Decimo candidate’s succession. That none of this is the point and Tsuna might be talking about something else entirely and Reborn… well… Reborn—

He clenches his fists. He hates not knowing. He hates being (feeling) _this_ , whatever _this_ is and for a moment (one ugly moment), he hates Tsuna for making him… making him _this_.

But then he sees Tsuna’s lips trembling and for the first time in years cursed and uncursed, he feels regret clawing underneath his tongue.

Tsuna looks away from the spot he always studies when he talks to Reborn, from the yellow pacifier and just swallows.

“Nothing. Never mind. Forget I said anything.”

 _But that’s not good enough_ , Reborn wants to protest. _Tell me what this is_ , he wants to say and suddenly he’s not sure if he’s talking about the jar anymore.

He’s about to take over the conversation, steer it to something that makes _sense_ , when Tsuna catches his eyes again with a firm gaze.

“I just… I don’t understand you sometimes. I want to understand but you…!” Tsuna shakes his head and runs a hand through his bangs, “there’s no point if you shut your heart off like this, Reborn. How can anyone help you, if you don’t let them?”

What…? Why don’t conversations with this child make any _sense?_

“What the hell is that supposed to mean?” Reborn says before he can take the words back. Tsuna has that effect on people, Reborn’s noticed. He makes them spill out their thoughts without even trying. Reborn’s annoyed to find that he’s not as immune as he thought.

Tsuna just shakes his head, swiping the jar from behind Reborn with such force that Reborn nearly believes that this is Tsuna’s limit. Here, Reborn will see Tsuna’s anger for the first time.

Yet Tsuna only smiles sadly. Tired again. “Nothing, I guess.” He stares at the floor. Pauses. “Just don’t… don’t take the jar out again.”

Tsuna goes to the door and Reborn feels something painful jerk in his chest. The weight in his pocket seems to twist and claw at his suit.

“Dame-Tsuna, where are you going?”

That makes Tsuna pause. But he doesn’t turn around to face Reborn. His body seems to shrink further around the jar as he whispers, “…Out… I’m going out. Um. Yamamoto’s.”

He rushes out without a second glance, before Reborn can even threaten him with a gun.

0

Granny tells him how to make a pendant.

His first shard is orange, as bright as his flames.

0

Leon bristles on the window sill, refusing to look at Reborn or go sit on his partner’s shoulder. Traitor. Reborn scowls and continues pacing. Dino and Romario stand awkwardly by the door, unsure if they’re allowed to leave or not. Good instincts, since Reborn feels like shooting anything that moves at the moment.

Stupid Dame-Tsuna. Always running away from a confrontation. But that’s not quite true either. In fact, Tsuna’s always running _towards_ confrontation when if it concerns other people’s wellbeing. Iemitsu’s faulty reports never mentioned the brat’s stupid tendency to put himself in danger. Honestly, running towards a hitman throwing dynamite around? Confronting a suicidal teenager with the instincts of a professional killer? Giving gifts to _Hibari_ of all people when he was eight?! Giving hugs to little children that could blow him up?! Granted, over half of these circumstances were instigated by Reborn but he expected Tsuna to run away every time.

Tsuna never did. Until today.

He steps on a pencil and it snaps in two, making Dino and Romario flinch. “What?” Reborn snaps, tired of the prey quivering behind him without making a move.

“Uh, well, Reborn… I don’t understand why you don’t go after him…”

“What? Like a moping dog back to its master?” he very nearly snarls.

Reborn doesn’t mention that he almost did go after Tsuna. He slipped past Dino and Romario to the kitchen, ready to give Tsuna a piece of his mind but Nana blocked his path with a fixed smile that reminded Reborn too much of himself and Yamamoto’s natural hitman tendencies. She’d been holding a frying pan and a spoon but Reborn’s instincts told him that they would make formidable weapons in her hands.

“Tsu-kun needs a break from all the kids today so he’s going to his friend’s house to refresh himself, isn’t he, Yamamoto?” Nana had said cheerfully.

Out of nowhere it seemed, Yamamoto appeared at the door, a hand on Tsuna’s back as he waved bye to both of them. Tsuna’s head didn’t turn back, hidden from view behind Yamamoto’s frame while Reborn wondered when the hell Yamamoto arrived so fast. “Yup, I’ll take good care of him,” his sharp eyes met Reborn’s with a dangerous smile.

The accusations between the two of them seemed to bubble to the surface right there. If Yamamoto wasn’t Tsuna’s potential Rain Guardian, Reborn might have shot him then and there.

“Oi, get your filthy hands off Tenth!” Smoking Bomb’s voice could be heard from the porch, speaking Reborn’s mind and probably prying Yamamoto from Tsuna outside. As annoyed as Reborn was, he had to give both guardians credit for honing in on Tsuna’s emotional distress so quickly. Tracking devices maybe?

Then they were gone, Yamamoto pulling Tsuna outside with a protective arm around his shoulders. They didn’t look back.

Reborn fought the urge to kick something then. When he tracked down Tsuna later, he would teach him a thing or two—

“Ah, are you upset?” Nana had asked and only Reborn’s fine control stopped him from whirling around obviously like an idiot. Tsuna made Reborn want to do reckless things, damn the consequences, and if other people were starting to notice then Reborn’s barriers were slipping and that _could not_ happen. (Another part of him whispers that Nana has always been dangerously perceptive.)

“ _No_ ,” Reborn said.

“Hm,” Nana slapped her wooden spoon hard against the frying pan, “Tsuna doesn’t often show that he’s upset to others. He always keep his feelings inside. Blames himself,” her fingers tightened on the handle, “maybe it’s uncool to talk to your mom about these things…”

“Not at all, Mama. Tsuna is just,” _kind,_ “foolish. He trusts too easily and he gets hurt because of it. He sees himself as a burden so he doesn’t want to trouble you. If anything, I…” _that stupid jar…_

Nana’s eyes had narrowed. “…Is this connected to why you’ve been ignoring Tsu-kun lately?”

Reborn did not freeze then. He did _not_.

“I won’t pretend to understand what you’re teaching my son but I _will_ say something about your methods… if you want Tsu-kun to trust you, to really _learn_ from you, then you should treat my son with respect,” she said with a disturbingly sunshine smile. “He is not a toy you can throw away if it suits you.”

With those words said, Nana turned her back on Reborn, concentrating on frying meat to a crisp. Reborn, for once, did not know what to say, and out of respect for Nana, stormed upstairs rather than seethe back at her with thorned retorts.

Now he’s stuck in a room with Dino and Romario’s whimpering forms and normally their fear would tickle Reborn’s sadist side but all he can think of is his stupid student giving pendants out to the weak, the eerie pendant around Tsuna’s neck and that jar of broken shards. _You don’t see me, do you?_ No, no, wrong. Reborn _sees_ , he merely doesn’t understand and he _detests_ it.

He’s the world’s greatest hitman. He can decipher anything, including his stupid student and those infuriating pendants and if he has to shoot Tsuna to get some answers he will.

“I have errands to attend to. Go back to your hotel. You’ll have to meet my _dear_ student later.”

“H-huh?” Dino pokes out from behind Tsuna’s chair. “B-but I thought y-you weren’t going a-after h-AIEE!”

A lovely bullet hole sears the edge of Dino’s collar.

“I’m not,” Reborn lowers his gun. “I’m going to _force_ the answers I want.”

He leaves before Dino can protest.

Yamamoto’s house is not far. In the future, Reborn will have to cross Yamamoto’s residence out of the list of possible safe houses for Tsuna though. Once Tsuna’s name becomes public knowledge in the mafia, his guardians’ names will be easy to get a hold of and a place like TakeSushi will be too obvious as a safehouse. Gokudera or Hibari’s residences would be more appropriate as both live off the grid (Hibari having an impressive family history of law enforcement and assassination.)

It’s too easy to slip through the window and hide behind a cushion in Yamamoto’s room though he does find some traps added in now (likely when Yamamoto figured out his pendant had been stolen. Promising progress for a potential guardian, albeit an annoying obstacle.)

Yamamoto and Tsuna are crouched together over a textbook, frowning in unison while Smoking Bomb switches between lecturing them and trying to keep them from touching. Yamamoto, naturally, refuses to listen and throws his arms around Tsuna in every moment he can and Reborn waits for Tsuna to shout for them to stop.

Except Tsuna does not. Tsuna is _smiling._ Very fondly. Like Smoking Bomb and Yamamoto have done something amazing with their petty arguments and Reborn has the urge to shoot something. Preferably anyone higher than five foot two.

He hears Tsuna laugh next and nearly bites his tongue. Tsuna never laughs at home anymore. He’s never laughed around _Reborn_ before, as it should be, but Reborn can’t help but grit his teeth anyways.

Smoking Bomb and Yamamoto pause, staring at Tsuna like he’s planted the stars in the sky (and perhaps, for them, he has.)

“…I’m glad you’re feeling better, Tsuna,” Yamamoto says quietly.

Immediately, Tsuna stops and starts shaking his head furiously. “No, no! I’m not upset, I wasn’t, I mean. I’m _fine_. Just stressing over the Math test—”

“That was yesterday—”

“—I mean, science test. Um. Thing. I just, I’m doing alright. I’m just glad you’re helping me study or I’ll never get this—”

“Tenth,” Smoking Bomb says solemnly, “ _Tsuna_.”

Instantly, Tsuna’s shoulders slump and suddenly he looks very small. Smaller than usual, as if a mere breath will make him fall apart. Smoking Bomb chose his words well but Reborn wants to throw dynamite at _him_ instead of feeling pleased with this progress.

“I’m sorry,” Tsuna says quietly. “I know I’m not… I mean, I just, I don’t want to ruin your evening, maybe I should go—”

“ _No!_ ” Yamamoto and Smoking Bomb say at once. “Stay,” they insist.

“You’re never a bother, Tsuna,” Yamamoto says intently.

Smoking Bomb glares at him, but switches to a beam for Tsuna, “You can tell me anything, Tenth! In fact, if you don’t want the baseball idiot here and need a heart-to-heart with your Right Hand Man, then I will happily dispose of the trash!”

“Okay. You can find the garbage can in the kitchen and sit in it, Gokudera, bye,” Yamamoto chimes in.

“ _Bastard—_ ”

Unexpectedly, Tsuna bursts out laughing so hard that Reborn’s mouth goes dry.

“Thank you,” Tsuna wipes his eye while Smoking Bomb and Yamamoto hover around him. “Just… thank you. I needed that.”

Both potential guardians frown and tell Tsuna that they can still talk if Tsuna needs to. Somehow, they’ve become well-versed in Tsuna’s smiles while Reborn was trying to push Tsuna away. They have Tsuna’s laughter, the stories in his eyes, his kindness. Maybe they even know what that jar of shards mean, maybe they talk about Tsuna’s troubles all the time while Reborn’s been turning away and—

“No, I’m fine, I just, um, I just realized that I forgot that mum has an errand for me to do so gottagobye,” Tsuna suddenly stands up and grabs his bag and books, rushing out before Yamamoto or Smoking Bomb can stop him. Only Tsuna’s shouts of _I’ll be fine, promise_ , hush their steps as they break into an argument over whether to follow Tsuna or not.

But Reborn is already moving. A good hitman always keeps his target in sight just as a good guardian should always keep their Sky in range. He’ll have to start beating lessons into Yamamoto and Smoking Bomb after this. But first, Tsuna.

Reborn scans the roads, sees Tsuna’s orange backpack turning around another corner. A corner that does _not_ lead to the market, if that’s what the supposed errand is for. Perhaps Tsuna is going to the park again, to be alone, to talk to the shard around his neck (if so, then Reborn will stop him) or maybe there’s another secret Tsuna is keeping, another thing that Reborn can’t touch but—

He nearly falls off the fence railing when he sees Tsuna standing in the middle of the road, waiting, staring exactly where Reborn should be hidden in the shadows.

“…Hi Reborn,” says Tsuna sheepishly.

“…You knew I was listening.” Of course, that sharp hyper intuition. Tsuna probably always knows when Reborn is nearby. That explains why Tsuna wouldn’t talk to Smoking Bomb or Yamamoto earlier. He didn’t want Reborn to know… but why play the idiot all the time, why pretend ignorance when Reborn follows him almost 24/7—except no, Tsuna is always so genuine, there’s no way that’s an act—

“Yeah,” Tsuna looks down at his shoes. “I did. I didn’t think you’d eavesdrop after…”

“Of course I would,” Reborn snaps, and damn it, he should have more _control_ then that. “You think I wouldn’t after seeing something so strange?”

“Most people would think about what they did first!” Tsuna snaps back.

“I’m your tutor. I need to know everything.”

“Why?! Why do you need to know _everything?!_ You can’t _do_ that! No one knows everything! That’s the point of being a… a human being! You’re always learning _something_. Maybe something about boundaries!”

Oh, it’s _on_.

“ _Boundaries?_ No, you’re a hundred years too early to lecture me. _Boundaries,_ ” he thinks of Luce smiling at him, telling him to meet her at their favourite concert hall for a reunion, “are security holes that are waiting to be broken. I’m not going to sit here when potential enemies could hurt you through your weaknesses. In the mafia, you need to be ruthless. That’s how you survive.”

Tsuna looks at him oddly, then, something mixed with understanding, maybe even sadness and Reborn wants to shake him and demand _why_.

“…But I won’t be in the mafia,” Tsuna says softly, as soft as flickering flames in the breeze. “I refuse.”

Reborn opens his mouth for a retort but for the first time, he can see how tall Tsuna stands for one so small. And there, in Tsuna’s eyes, Reborn can feel silent flames, waiting to spark.

It’s… it makes Reborn’s throat go dry and that’s when he knows… he’s _fucked_. Sky loyalty fucked.

 _Shit_ , he thinks. _Shit, shit, shit._ He can’t be loyal. Not again. Not after Luce. He promised himself he wouldn’t leave ties to anyone.

But Tsuna… when Reborn looks at Tsuna’s eyes, he wants to _believe._

“…So?” Reborn tries to keep the croak out of his voice. “What would you do then? You know the Vongola won’t leave you alone.”

Tsuna shrugs, his smile half shaking and unsure, half something Reborn still can’t describe. “I don’t know… I just… I know I don’t want to be the type of person who has to _survive_. I just, I just want to live.”

Reborn swallows.

“…And how would you do that?”

“Well, not sure, really. Everything I do, I’m terrible at. But… I think I’d like to start by being your friend.”

Reborn almost snorts. “ _Friend?_ ” He doesn’t have friends. Just acquaintances. Colleagues and connections. Self proclaimed rivals and enemies. Leon. No one would be crazy enough to be his _friend_.

“Why not?” Tsuna actually puffs his cheeks in annoyance and Reborn fights the urge to poke them.

“You’d run away if you knew the real me.” They all do.

“Well, then so would you, if you knew about the jar!” Tsuna glares.

“Oh?”

He thinks about it. If pieces of his past were bottled up in a box, he would kill anyone who tried to open it (touch it) without his permission (not that he’d ever give it. He’d throw the key into a volcano before that happened.) In retrospect, Tsuna is kinder (as always), walking away before he can say the wrong things.

“…Why… would you want such a thing from me?”

“What? F-Friendship?”

“Yes. Don’t make me shoot you.”

Tsuna only rolls his eyes and Reborn wonders if he should be proud or disappointed.

“Well… you’re pretty sadistic and annoying,” this _brat_ , “but I think you’re cool. Sometimes.”

Reborn stares.

“A-and, w-well,” Tsuna fidgets, “you care. Even if you don’t want to admit it. I like that about you. Plus you read the same comics I do, even if you pretend you don’t. S-so, I guess, I just… I want to help you too, like you’ve helped me, and the only way I know how to do that, is if we’re friends too.”

Is this what trust feels like? He feels so… warm. There’s no other word for it except for _warm_.

“A-a-a-and I’m sorry about e-earlier too. I didn’t mean to yell or anything. I’m just not used to… to looking at those s-shards again and it brought up t-things I don’t want to t-think about—”

Luce. The concert hall. Checker face. The agony of flames and light.

“It’s fine,” Reborn tilts his hat down. “You don’t need to talk about it. I was… in the wrong.”

Tsuna gapes at him, as if he rearranged the stars.

“Close your mouth and don’t make me say it again. That was an once-in-a-lifetime moment, Tsuna. Treasure it.”

“Ah, um, I-I-I will!”

“And this proposal you brought up. We’ll try it. But I’m still your tutor. You’ll still train with your dying will whether you become a mafia boss or not, brat.”

It takes a long time for Tsuna to process this but his growing smile is brighter than the sunrise, warmer than the pendant in his pocket or the pacifier around his neck.

Reborn is done fighting this. Tsuna and his stupid Sky smile wins.

0

His new pendant burns like the sun, like bonfires during Festival time or lanterns in the dark. Tsuna can’t stop swinging it back and forth, the chains made from his tears, and watching the tangerine sparkle inside the circle of glass. He never thought anything so pretty could come from his heart. The pendant seems more like a crystalized memory of fire then anything within Tsuna. But when he looks at its sparkle, he can believe that he’s brave.

He jumps up to hug Granny around the neck. “Thank you, thank you, _thank you!_ ”

Granny gives a shaky breath before she wraps trembling fingers around him.

“…Take care who you give your heart to.”

 _I won’t forgive anyone who breaks it,_ her shard sings.

0

Reborn and Tsuna end up going to the nearest convenience store to pick up snacks, arguing over what flavors of ice cream are best (Cappuccino for Reborn, orangesicle for Tsuna) and whether they should get more candy for the kids (they do.) They argue over who will pay (Tsuna’s allowance is low, Reborn isn’t afraid to say he’s cheap) until they end up splitting the cost and Reborn steals Tsuna’s popsicle despite orange-vanilla tasting horrid to him.

He hops on Tsuna’s shoulder, ignoring Tsuna’s surprised smile, and for a while, Reborn almost feels carefree. Almost.

Seeing Dino and Romario eating dinner at Nana’s table makes Reborn’s instincts rage. Not that he shows it. He’s a professional, after all.

“Welcome back,” Nana beams at Reborn sitting on Tsuna’s shoulder. “I see you made up! Ooo, did you bring mochi, Tsuna? I’ll go tell the kids,” she leaves.

“Ah, Tsuna, nice to meet you properly this time,” Dino waltzes over to take Tsuna’s hand as soon as the opportunity presents itself. Reborn’s trigger finger twitches.

“Um. Hi?” Tsuna sends a questioning glance at Reborn.

“I thought I told you to go back to your hotel room,” Reborn snaps, watching in satisfaction when Romario inches behind Dino.

“Well, Romario told me that Tsuna was coming back so I decided to come back so we can get to know each other,” Dino grins, still _not letting go of Tsuna’s hand_ , “I’m Dino by the way. Dino Cavallone of the Chiavarone family.”

Tsuna pales. “You’re mafia too?”

“Yup. The Chiavarone Decimo, actually,” Dino smiles with twinkling eyes. But Reborn can see the calculation hidden deep within them. “Reborn was actually my tutor before. Guess that makes me, what’s the word, your sempai?”

Tsuna drops his bag. “ _You were Reborn’s student?_ ”

Dino lets go of Tsuna’s hand (finally) to scratch sheepishly at his cheek. “Yup, it was rough. Reborn is a sadist, I mean, perfectly awesome teacher, a ha ha…” he trails off when Leon transforms into a gun. “He, uh, wanted me to come meet you, give you tips, stuff like that…”

“He used to be a spineless coward, completely useless at everything,” Reborn elaborates when Tsuna stares. _Rather like you_ , the old Reborn might have said once but he remembers eyes that were almost like flames and refrains. “Didn’t want to be a boss either.”

“Oh,” Tsuna says quietly. He looks sad again, peering somewhere Reborn can’t see. “…I’m sorry, that must have been hard.”

Dino blinks, startled for a moment, before he tries to ease the tension away with laughs. “Nah, man, I got used to it. I wouldn’t trade my men away for anything in the world!”

“Still,” Tsuna steps closer, “didn’t you… I mean, I know you care about your friends a lot, but… didn’t you ever want to do something else?”

“I…” Dino tries to say something charming, but he stops, transfixed by Tsuna’s gaze. Maybe he sees them too. Eyes like flames. “You’re going to laugh at me later, when you know my nickname, but I actually wanted to run a ranch. Be with horses. Used to go every summer to ride my uncle’s pony.”

Reborn vaguely recalls this from Dino’s file, but somehow he feels different when he hears Dino say it out loud.

“…Do you still ride?”

When Dino smiles this time, he looks tired. “Sometimes. Not as much as I’d like.”

Slowly, Tsuna touches Dino’s shoulder, “Um, if you want, we could go riding sometime. I think… that you’ve been really brave, giving up your dream to be a mafia boss. I don’t know if I could do that.”

“I…” something genuinely happy sparks Dino’s grin, “Sure thing, little bro.”

Nana and the children burst into the kitchen, interrupting their moment. “Let’s eat then!” the kids shout, running to table. Laughing, Dino goes to pass out the mochi but Reborn lingers behind with Tsuna. He can’t help but think of all the times Tsuna looks at people with sad smiles.

“Do you have a dream of some sort, Tsuna?”

For a while, Tsuna doesn’t answer, and just when Reborn contemplates throwing at shoe at him, Tsuna murmurs, “I just… want everyone I care about to be happy.”

Reborn doesn’t even bother trying to be surprised anymore. Doesn’t bother fighting the twitch of his lips. Maybe he should complement Tsuna, just this once (liar) or lecture him about kindness in the mafia now instead of trying to beat the lesson into him.

But Tsuna runs off to help Lambo open a candy wrapper before Reborn can answer.

0

He’s running back home so quick, he nearly falls on his face about four times on the sidewalk. The orange pendant in his hands sings for Nana, eager to hum her happy tunes. Breathlessly, he swings the door open, shouting, “Mama, mama…!” when he hears another heartsong in the living room with his mum’s.

 _A friend of mama’s?_ Tsuna assumes, at first, when he rushes into the room.

But this song feels familiar somehow, with major chords in a somewhat melancholy yet powerful march. Something he heard in his dreams once, a long time ago. Tears come, unbidden, in Tsuna’s eyes but he quickly wipes them away. Adults don’t like to see children cry.

“Mama?” he asks, when he sees a big, burly man hugging and kissing her.

“Oh, Tsu-kun!” his mum scoops him up into a spin, “How wonderful! Where were you playing earlier, honey? Look, your Daddy’s come home!” she points at the man.

Tsuna almost forgets to breathe. ‘Daddy’ is a word for the other kids at school to use. Not him. He’s not sure he can say it with the painful lump in his throat.

All around him, Nana’s heartsong sings the loudest and happiest crescendo he’s ever heard from her. _Iemitsu, Iemitsu,_ her heart cries out, _home, home at last, I love you_.

The man called Daddy grins and asks if dinner’s ready. Nana nods happily and skips towards the kitchen, “I didn’t have time to make a big feast, this is such a surprise, but I can whip up more of your favourite dishes while you eat!”

“Sounds wonderful, honey,” he says, while Tsuna vaguely remembers this man visiting for a few days several months ago. Iemitsu still has a booming voice, like cymbals clanged in front of Tsuna’s face and he can’t help but wince at the sound of his voice.

But before Tsuna can tiptoe away, Iemitsu scoops Tsuna up and shouts, “Did ya miss me, son?”

His breath smells gross, like a bar, and Tsuna covers his nose.

“Shy little thing, aren’t ya? Don’t worry, you’ll grow out of that,” Iemitsu lifts Tsuna a bit higher.

“Where did you go?” Tsuna blurts out the underlying bass line he hears in Nana’s heartsong, the quiet percussion being swallowed by all the joy in her song. He refuses to look at Iemitsu’s heart, despite the loud annoying march that Iemitsu’s heart parades.

“Why, to work, of course! Lots of buildings to be built and all that,” Iemitsu says though his heart clangs in a discordant lie, lie, lie, ignoring the lingering sadness in Nana’s and Tsuna just wants him to hear, to _know_. Why can’t he _hear_ it?

“But Mama was sad when you were gone. You didn’t call, you didn’t—”

“Tsu-kun, that’s enough,” Nana says sharply.

Tsuna wishes he could be deaf, in that moment, because her heart sings, _don’t make this worse, don’t make me remember. I just want to be with my darling, right now. I just want to be happy_.

And Iemitsu, that stupid ‘Daddy’ of his, has the audacity to have a sad song too. _I’m sorry_ , quiet triangles ring in his heart, _but its better this way. You would never understand._

Tsuna wiggles out of Iemitsu’s hold, mutters an apology that he doesn’t feel, and runs to his bedroom to hide under his pillow. When he opens his fists, the pendant is embedded so tightly against his palm that he wonders if its red outline will stay as a scar on him forever.

“Dad,” he tests the word, strange, heavy on his lips, “is back. Mama is happy.”

He hides the pendant in his sock drawer. Shuts it tight.

0

After crazy dinner shenanigans with Dino’s killer clumsiness and a giant turtle, Reborn spots Dino standing in the hallway, staring at yet another Tsuna-created pendant. This one glitters slightly brighter than the other pendants, bits of orange sparkle in the muddy brown colour, but somehow graceful as a carved horse with lightning etched on its belly.

“…He’s kind,” Dino says in the dark.

“Yes.”

Not mafia material, they both know, but—

“I like him. Don’t tell Nono, but I’m glad. I’m glad the Vongola is getting him,” Dino cradles the pendant in his hand. “Maybe he’ll change things.”

“Maybe,” Reborn replies.

But he thinks of the jar of shards, a jar that he’ll have to trust Tsuna will tell him about someday. He thinks of Dino and ranches, of the man he had to shape into a boss by trampling on his dreams and self-worth. _I won’t be in the mafia,_ Tsuna said.

“…He’ll need strong friends.”

“Right,” Dino nods, putting the pendant under his shirt. “I’ll test Hayato Gokudera and Takeshi Yamamoto for guardian potential right away—”

“No,” Reborn decides.

Dino furrows his brow. “But isn’t that what you called me to Japan for?”

“Yes,” Reborn admits. “I just mean, not now. We should… discuss this with Tsuna first.”

Dino’s jaw drops.

“Shut up.”

“I didn’t say anything!”

Leon transforms.

“Okay, okay! I’ll be quiet! It’s just… you’ve never considered your student’s feelings before—gah, don’t shoot, don’t shoot!”

 _I just… want everyone I care about to be happy,_ Tsuna said with sad sky eyes and Reborn tips his hat down.

“...I’m trying something new.”

0

That night, Tsuna burrows himself in his blankets early. He doesn’t want to hear them, how Nana’s heart sings so brightly when Iemitsu’s becomes an overbearing duet with hers. His drums overpower the sound of Nana’s flutes sometimes, like they’re strangling her in lines of sheet music but its fine because they sound happy. They’re _happy_. That’s all that matters.

Tsuna shouldn’t be selfish.

It’s a shame that his pillow can’t muffle out his own heartsong.

Sometime later in the night, Nana creeps in his room and he pretends to be asleep. Nana’s heart is never okay when she sees him cry. Better for him to hide then tell the truth. But she doesn’t leave after she fixes his covers.

Instead, she hovers for a bit, before she sighs and sits by his bedside.

“…I wish I could see hearts like you do, Tsu-kun,” she whispers, not really talking to him. Her hands wisp against the tips of his hair. “Maybe then, I’d know what makes darling so afraid… Maybe then, I’d know how to make him stay.”

Tsuna has to swallow his sob, the ache he feels by hearing the distilled pleas in Nana’s heart.

He waits for her to kiss him on the forehead, to leave, before he lets the tears go.

 _It’s not fair_ , he thinks, being able to hear all these hearts, to know and to feel with them. _I want to be mad at him, but I can’t_.

Not when Iemitsu makes Nana so bright.

That night, he makes another pendant, for Iemitsu. Through the blood and muffled screams, he remembers strong arms spinning him around like a helicopter and rough kisses on the cheek. Maybe this, will make him stay too.

0

Reborn decides to bring up testing Tsuna’s guardians in the morning. Leon looks at him smugly when Reborn indulges in a round of video games with Tsuna and the kids until Reborn just flicks Leon away. Even Dino joins in for a few rounds of badly played Mario kart and Reborn is tempted to make a mafia party out of the affair. But no. Let Tsuna have this evening carefree. A peace offering for what’s to come.

After Tsuna’s alarm rings, Reborn decides to drop the subject casually on the way to school, before Yamamoto and Gokudera show up, if only to keep his student on his toes and relish the look of surprise on Tsuna’s face first.

Except Tsuna stops in the middle of the road, mid-sentence with Reborn, eyes wide and frightened.

“…Oi,” Reborn nudges him with his foot, unnerved, “are you attempting a career as a statue, Tsuna, or are you going to move?”

“I…” Tsuna barely reacts to Reborn’s poke. “There’s something… _Onii-san!_ ”

Tsuna takes off, rushing down the street in the opposite direction of school while Reborn holds on with the strength of his fingers. He’d shoot Tsuna or shout or _something_ if the urgency of Tsuna’s movements didn’t make Reborn want to pull out all his guns and hide Tsuna away so he can shoot whatever scares Tsuna this way.

He barely has time to ask what is happening before they reach the bridge Haru challenged Tsuna on, before they see a group of Kokuyo students surrounding Ryohei Sasagawa, kicking his body no matter how many times he tries to get up.

Two of them hold Ryohei up, presumably to punch him in the face but Reborn sees plyers in one of their hands and he immediately thinks of mafia threats, pulling teeth from a subordinate to flush out a boss. Call it loyalty or protecting one’s reputation, but a boss has to answer such a challenge or he’ll look weak. Easy prey.

For just a breath, Tsuna stops, breaths short and wheezy. Torn between staying put and moving.

 _Call your guardians,_ Reborn almost says, never one to waste an opportunity to test potential subordinates. But Tsuna barely knows what guardians are and Tsuna stupidly shakes his head, as if he hears Reborn’s thoughts, and rushes towards the group—

“L-let him g-go!” he shouts just as one of the Kokuyo brats moves the plyers to Ryohei’s face.

Several things happen at once, so quickly that if Reborn wasn’t a cursed infant, he might not believe they happened.

The Kokuyo student with a beanie smirks and jams the plyers forward, the pendant around Ryohei’s neck begins to _glow_ like a raging sunbeam trying to escape from glass, and the Kokuyo students are sent flying backwards as soon as the plyers hit what seems like an orange barrier around Ryohei.

Tsuna falls to his knees, as soon as the glow stops.

“What the hell?!” Beanie-with-glasses gasps. He looks down at the plyers on the ground, all smudged in ash and soot. “What did you...? Never mind, let’s get out of here,” he orders the other students. They scatter as soon as Ryohei gets to his feet.

Silently Reborn sends one of his beetles to follow them but before he can instruct his insects, Ryohei is on the ground, gathering Tsuna in his arms.

“Tsuna?!” Ryohei shakes him, “Tsuna, are you alright? What’s wrong?”

“M’fine,” Tsuna hides his face behind his hands, shrinking away from Ryohei’s wandering hands.

“No, you’re not, I can smell _blood_ ,” Ryohei moves Tsuna’s hands out of the way.

Indeed, red trails down Tsuna’s nose and _eyes_ in blotchy, ugly lines. They’re stains that shouldn’t be there in the first place and before Reborn knows it, he’s pulled out a handkerchief and he’s pressing it against Tsuna’s eyes, have to blot it out, blot it out, out, out—

“M’okay, Reborn, m’not hurt. It happens,” Tsuna tries to wave him away but Ryohei holds Tsuna still and Reborn won’t let go of the handkerchief. This doesn’t just _happen_. Even Ryohei, for all that he acts the fool to get Tsuna to smile, knows this.

“… _That_ …” Ryohei swallows slowly, “that happened after my pendant started extremely glowing… did you… Sawada, did you have something to do with that?”

Reborn presses the handkerchief down too tight. That’s not possible, that’s _not possible._

Tsuna starts to tremble. “N-no, what a-are you talking a-ab—”

“Good luck. You told me that it would give me extreme good luck and protection. And it… it _did_. That wasn’t just my imagination, was it? You… you did that.”

Tsuna’s eyes start to tear up. He looks down, stops trying to cover the blood flow.

“Yes.”

Reborn wonders if this is what it feels like to freefall. He barely knows what to think, before Ryohei’s expression turns serious and he scoops Tsuna up in his arms like a bride.

“W-what are you—?”

“We need to get you to a hospital, extremely fast. Don’t worry, Sawada,” Ryohei grins, his hold tender, “I won’t drop you.”

He runs like the devil is chasing them. Reborn plots like one.

0

Iemitsu’s pendant glitters in the sunlight when Tsuna holds it up in the playground. That morning, Nana and Iemitsu were too busy doing grown-up things in the living room for Tsuna to interrupt, so he grabbed his bento and promised to give it after school. He can’t stop looking at Iemitsu’s pendant though, can’t stop feeling a _lack_ in his own chest.

The colour is duller than Nana’s pendant. Not as bright. But when Tsuna checked his sock drawer for Nana’s pendant in the morning, the colour there was duller too.

“…I guess I’m no-good at this too,” he frowns, watching the colour tinge a bit darker. A bit of brown mixing into all the bright orange.

“Hey, what’s that?” someone asks from behind him.

Tsuna jumps, falling knees first into the sand.

The voice bursts out laughing. “Gosh, you’re dumb. It’s just me.”

“A-ah,” Tsuna wipes the sand out of his hair. “Um, sorry about that… Daichi, right?”

“And you’re Tsuna,” Daichi rolls his eyes. “So, are you gonna answer my question? What’s that?”

“O-oh, um,” he gingerly holds it out, “just a pendant that I made… for my… my dad.”

Daichi’s eyes grow wide, pupils swallowing a white universe. “That’s awesome! Can I hold it? Can I see?”

“Uh… sure—”

“Oh wow,” Daichi grabs it, spinning around to see the glass in the light. His heart, too, wolf whistles at the sight of the pendant, almost hopping up and down like a green ball. “This is so cool! Is that a gun? And a lion drawn on it? Dude, I _want_ one! Can you make me one too? Can ya?”

“You…” Tsuna wants to pinch himself, “you really want one…?”

“Are you _kidding_ me? This is the coolest thing ever! Everyone in class is gonna be jealous of me and you!”

“Then,” _don’t give away your heart, Tsuna_ , “sure. I mean, if you really want one. But, just once, okay?”

Once should be fine. He’s only given away three heart shards then. That’s not too much, right?

“Dude, you rock!”

As Daichi tackles him in a one-armed hug, spinning them both round in circles, Tsuna wonders if this is what it’s like… having a friend.

0

Mukuro Rokudo. That’s what his beetles and informants tell him while he’s waiting for Shamal’s diagnosis of Tsuna. In fact, Rokudo apparently escaped _months_ ago and no one informed him or Bianchi or Shamal.

He calls Nono _immediately_. If he could shoot someone through the phone, he would.

“Why didn’t you inform me that Mukuro Rokudo escaped from prison?” he says as soon as Nono picks up.

“The Vindici are keeping the break-out as quiet as possible. They don’t want Rokudo to ruin their reputation.”

“Too late,” Reborn scowls. “Tell me everything you know.”

“You should have the files uploaded to you already. Besides, I thought you appreciated surprises,” Nono says lightly.

“Not when it endangers my student,” he hisses because he’s tired of this, of mind games disguised by decorum and kindly smiles. Not when Tsuna is bleeding right now (but that wasn’t exactly Rokudo’s doing, not directly, and _shut up, shut up, shut up_.) “You sent me to Japan to do a job. Let me do that job.”

Nono pauses for a few seconds too long.

“…My apologies. For the next test, I will inform you right away.”

Reborn grits his teeth. “Test?” He knew this was coming. But not this soon.

“To prove himself as my heir, I want Tsuna to recapture Mukuro Rokudo and his associates. Dead or alive.”

 _He’s not ready_ , Reborn almost shouts but instead he forces himself to say, “Yes.”

Nono sighs on the other side of the line. Like he’s sad (bullshit).

“Someday… tell him… tell him that I have the utmost confidence in him, would you?”

 _Liar_ , Reborn wants to say to the dial tones echoing in his ears. Nono is a man who lost his sons, after all. How much confidence does such a man have left?

0

“Tsuna?” the smell of antiseptic and sight of white walls has never seemed so welcome to him before. He jumps up to hugs Granny as soon as he sees her. “Well, now, child, not that I’m complaining about the visit, but what’s the occasion? Where’s your mother?”

“I wanted to see you! I thought maybe we could read my book together… I have to get to chapter five by tomorrow and tell the class what happens to the frog in the story,” Tsuna tells her, practically bouncing.

Granny laughs. “And your mother?”

“Ah…” Tsuna stops jumping. “Well… Iem— _Dad_ is home, so…”

“Tch, that idiot? No wonder you’re not home. Let me guess, she’s turned the kitchen into a buffet and waiting on him hand and foot!” Granny scowls.

“H-he makes her h-happy…!”

“Don’t try to defend him, I know that. That’s the only reason I haven’t told her to file for a divorce. Plus, he sends good money every month. And don’t pretend to like him, I know you don’t. I _can_ hear your heart, child.”

Tsuna feels his ears go pink. “Right.”

“I’m guessing you didn’t give her the pendant yet either.”

“I… no. I just… maybe later…”

Granny doesn’t scoff like he expects to her. Instead she lets the machines fill the silence with beeps and drips from the IV line.

“…Are you happy with that, Tsuna?”

“O-of course! Eventually, Mama will spend time with me again,”—when Iemitsu leaves, he tries not to think… but if he gives Iemitsu the pendant then maybe he won’t leave—“and then I’ll give it to her. Besides, I’m okay. I made some new friends. We play together every recess,”—more like Daichi drags Tsuna around and makes lists of who wants another pendant—“and I don’t feel alone anymore.”

Granny studies him for a moment before she smiles.

“Alright then. Pull up a chair then. These books won’t read themselves.”

After all, Tsuna’s heart looks the same size. He’s fine. Perfectly fine.

0

Ryohei hovers by the infirmary door like a bee waiting for his queen to emerge. He won’t stop moving, fidgeting or muttering under his breath. His eyes dart to all possible entry points, as if the Kokuyo brats will step out of the walls (unlikely with Hibari patrolling Namimori but Rokudo has strong subordinates. Reborn should plot, calculate, but all he wants to do is march into the infirmary and shout at Shamal for answers.)

Thankfully, no one saw Ryohei, Tsuna or Reborn enter the school (with Ryohei still carrying Tsuna). At some point, Reborn convinced Ryohei to go to Shamal. Closer destination. But more questions about the blood stains on Ryohei’s shirt.

Ryohei’s hands fly up to hold the pendant every five seconds, the way a priest consults his rosary for guidance. By the twenty seventh time this happens, Reborn snaps, “Stop that,” and Ryohei’s arms drop.

“Sorry little man,” Ryohei runs a nervous hand through his hair. “I just… I can’t believe… Sawada got _hurt_ because of me.”

Part of Reborn wants to agree that yes, Tsuna got hurt because of Ryohei, but he can’t because Ryohei sounds so _young_. Like Tsuna. All so goddamned young and Reborn with a mind clouded by fucking sky loyalty.

“…We don’t know that—”

“You didn’t see it, dude. It was… it was extreme but I saw Sawada go down, like he got _punched_ for me as soon as those plyers came down. No one…” Ryohei wraps the pendant up in a fist, “…no one’s ever done that for me before.”

Reborn looks at the scar on Ryohei’s face. “I imagine not.”

“Sawada’s so strong… _Damn_ , makes me wanna run three hundred laps around the school. I’m supposed to be his sempai. I should be the one protecting him,” his fists shake, tightening so hard that Reborn scowls.

“If you break that pendant—”

“Are you kidding me?! I’d _never_ break it!” Ryohei lets go, lets the pendant swing back against his chest. “I may not like Sawada getting hurt for me but this is an extremely precious gift he gave me. I’ll never take it off. I’ll follow him anywhere.”

Reborn tries not to look stunned at this simple, yet bold, declaration of loyalty. He almost questions if Ryohei knows what he’s promising, being the naïve type, foolhardy and stubborn, charging into any situation to protect his sister or his honour.

But Tsuna needs guardians. If Reborn has to sacrifice other people to keep Tsuna’s kindness, then so be it.

“There’s a student at Kokuyo. Someone named Mukuro Rokudo. He’s after Tsuna. I’m not sure who else he’ll attack before he comes for him,” _or if Rokudo has found out who the Decimo is yet_. “Here, Tsuna’s vulnerable. Can I rely on you to do patrols?”

Ryohei’s smile is blinding with undying will and resolve. “I extremely will,” he swears, and Reborn smirks, knowing that anyone looking for Tsuna will at least get a hard punch in the face, as they deserve.

0

Granny’s soft snores tell him that it’s time to go home. But just as Tsuna closes his book, he spots a girl around his age, hovering by the door.

“Um. Hi?” he says when they stare at each other awkwardly for five minutes.

She ducks her head, like she’ll run away but then she stops and steps a bit closer. “Hi.”

Her heart is a small thing, quivering as if a harsh wind will blow it away. Tsuna frowns as he sees chains around her indigo heart. But no matter how much the chains tighten, her indigo heart doesn’t scar. Only flutters and storms like bits of mist gathered into clouds of cotton candy, trying desperately to stay together. The music he hears from her is soft, barely a whisper.

“I… I’m Tsuna,” he says because he wants her heart to sing a little louder, louder than the clink of chains, at least.

She fiddles with sleeves. A white sheet like the other hospital gowns. She could be a ghost for Western Halloween if she weren’t in a patient’s room.

“N-Nagi.”

“Oh, that’s a nice name!”

Her eyes widen.

“Um, unless you don’t like it. Sorry, I didn’t mean to be rude…”

She shakes her head. “I, um, I like y-your name t-too!”

Her heart is starting to ring like sleigh bells and it’s so pretty that Tsuna has to smile.

“A-and, um, I r-really liked y-your book…”

And just like that, Tsuna knows that he has to be friends with her.

“Isn’t it great? It’s about a superhero who was born in an explosion, but he doesn’t really want to be a superhero, he just wants to be a normal kid with his mom and I love how he tries to fix things with friendship instead of fists. Um, do you wanna read the rest of it together?”

Her eyes are shining and her heart rings wonderful tunes that remind Tsuna of the joy of falling snow.

“Yes!”

They curl up on the floor with some spare blankets and don’t notice how Granny’s lips curl up into a smile.

0

Hibari is in the infirmary when Reborn barges in. Shamal, of course, is knocked out on the floor (honestly, if Shamal wasn’t the mafia’s best doctor and Hibari one of the most violent teenagers he’d ever met, he’d fire him for the terrible security detail.)

“Explain,” he says, pointing his tonfas at a quivering Tsuna.

“Um, Hibari, I’m fine, it’s just a nosebleed, no big deal, _oh my god, don’t hit Shamal, he said it was a nosebleed!_ ”

“It doesn’t do to lie to your future guardians, Tsuna,” Reborn says because he still gets a kick out of seeing Tsuna’s infuriated face and he’s pissed that Tsuna’s kept this… whatever-it-is… secret for so long.

Tsuna barely dodges a tonfa attack as he ducks behind the bed and Hibari growls, “The truth this time, Little Bird. Now.”

“I-I can’t! Y-you won’t b-believe me!”

“You mentioned something about Tsuna’s pendant doing its task once,” Reborn narrows his eyes. “Did it protect you too?”

Hibari barely glances at him. “I interrogated the boxing herbivore earlier when he was patrolling in my stead. He explained the situation to me when he noticed my pendant. Is it true? You bleed when I use this?”

“N-no…”

Hibari and Reborn glare.

“N-not always,” Tsuna amends, picking at the tissue box. “Only when you’re in active danger and the pendant has to glow.”

Hibari moves his tonfas so quickly that Reborn nearly whips out his guns to shoot them away, except it’s not the tonfas that Hibari is reaching for. He pulls his pendant off and thrusts it towards Tsuna.

“Here.”

Tsuna barely knows what to do.

“Take it.”

“B-but… it’s…” Tsuna clenches his fists, “it’s not mine anymore. It’s _yours_. Please, if you don’t want it anymore, you might as well break it, don’t, _don’t—_ ”

“Don’t be foolish,” Hibari leans in, opens Tsuna’s fist and puts the pendant there. “It’s _mine_ ,” he whispers. “But I won’t take it with me into battle. I will be back for it when I take care of business. _Don’t_ break it.”

“But. I. Where are you going?!” Tsuna follows him to the window.

Hibari reaches out suddenly and points at the blood stains on Tsuna’s face. “Mukuro Rokudo. He’ll pay for trespassing on Namimori.”

He jumps out the window before Tsuna can stop him.

0

A month passes. Iemitsu hasn’t left yet. He and Nana spend every minute together. Sometimes Iemitsu will try to pull Tsuna into a game of soccer or something but Tsuna has never been good at sports and sometimes, when Tsuna trips and falls down, Iemitsu will just clap him on the shoulders way too hard and say that boys don’t cry (but what else is Tsuna supposed to do with his emotions? Yell?)

He hasn’t given either of them a pendant yet. Every time he tries, his hands shake and he pictures them throwing the pendants away and laughing at Tsuna’s attempts so he just hides them in the sock drawer.

 _Tomorrow_ , he tells himself, _I’ll give it to them tomorrow_.

He misses Nana but he visits Granny every day in the hospital and reads to Nagi too. They help him feel at home and he gives Nagi a ribbon shaped pendant that has a skull with a bow etched on it. He’s not sure why the pendant came out that way but Nagi’s eyes lit up and she refused to take it off.

“I love skulls, actually. I think they’re kind of cute. Is that weird?” she asked him.

“Eh, maybe if it was someone else. But that just adds to how cool you are,” Tsuna assured her.

He hopes she’ll feel better soon. He hasn’t seen her parents yet but apparently Nagi is here every day because she’s really sick. So Tsuna makes sure to pray for her too as well as Granny.

Granny hasn’t… well Granny hasn’t been feeling well lately. She coughs so much, like there’s a demon in her throat that wants to claw its way out and her eyes look hollower every afternoon. She’s so skinny now and sometimes she looks at Tsuna and doesn’t know who he is. She asks a lot for Grandpa, who died a long time ago, and sometimes she thinks Nagi is Nana as a young girl.

“Don’t let him tempt you,” Granny gasps at him, in her lucid moments, gripping at his sleeve. “He comes every night for me but when he comes for you, don’t let him tempt you…”

Tsuna doesn’t know what to say in those moments. Her shards is so small now. Barely a sliver left.

At school, Daichi won’t stop parading Tsuna around and telling other people about the pendants. Just those in the older grades. But at least Daichi is happy and Tsuna has someone to eat lunch with. He feels so tired lately but his heart is still the same size, still burning as best it can.

He tries to talk about it with Daichi a few times but Daichi only says, “Man, that sucks,” and slides him a chocolate milk, “this will cheer you up.”

The chocolate used to taste so sweet but Tsuna can’t help but think it tastes bitter now.

0

Just when Reborn thinks he’ll have the opportunity to ask Tsuna about _what-the-hell-is-going-on-with-the-pendants_ and maybe drop the _you-have-to-capture-Mukuro-Rokudo_ bomb, Tsuna jumps up and whispers, “Gokudera.”

He grabs the tissue box, shoves his shoes on and tries to run out the door. Key word: Try.

“Reborn, what are you doing?!” Tsuna nearly pulls his hair out. He puts Hibari’s pendant beside the shard around his neck.

“What are _you_ doing?” he scowls. “What the _hell_ is going on, Tsuna? What do these pendants mean? Are they tracking devices? Weapons?”

“God, no,” Tsuna recoils back before he stands straight again. “Look, there’s no time for this, Gokudera’s in trouble—”

“I need answers—”

“—and I need the door!”

“Just tell me what they are before I throw them away!” Reborn spits out.

Tsuna freezes.

“…I didn’t mean that.”

“I know!” Tsuna snaps, “I know, I just… I _know_. But this is not the time for another argument, Reborn. Gokudera is in _trouble_ and frankly, I made these pendants because I _care_ about you and that’s all that matters. Now let me out, or I’ll jump out the window.”

He thinks of his plans to get strong guardians for Tsuna, to shield him from the mafia and protect his kindness. Maybe that was a disservice because Tsuna, right now, looks _brilliant_ and the kindness is still there… just a different form. Harder. Not necessarily bad. (But don’t good intentions pave the road to hell?)

“I… know that I’m weak. But this… this is the only way I know how to help them. Please, Reborn. Open the door. Trust me.”

Leon becomes a cocoon.

0

The day he sees the checker-masked man, it rains. Tsuna’s not sure why the teacher or his classmates haven’t noticed the man walking in through the walls, a strange not-smile against his big chin and one eye covered in black and white squares. Tsuna wonders if this checker-masked man is a fan of chess. Or checkers. Why else would an adult wear such a weird hat-mask? It’s creepy.

It reminds Tsuna a lot of the story of the poor woman who wished away her heart. He hopes that the man will leave soon.

The masked man does not leave. In fact, he walks up to Tsuna’s desk and leans down to whisper, “Your grandmother Minori’s running out of time… you should visit her before she dies.”

Tsuna forgets to breathe for a moment.

The masked man smiles. “I don’t lie. I would never lie to kin.”

 _Kin?_ No, that doesn’t matter. Tsuna can’t quite see what the masked man’s heart looks like, maybe it’s a trick of light, but that _doesn’t matter_ because this man, he must be, he can’t be—

Tsuna can’t help it if the teacher yells at him for falling out his chair.

Creepy masked man or not, he runs out the door, ignoring everyone who yells. Granny Minori can’t die. She _can’t_.

The checkered-masked man follows behind him and Tsuna can’t bring himself to care.

0

Somehow Tsuna knows where Smoking Bomb is, by one of the main streets where the electronic store is, and Reborn’s suspicions of some kind of supernatural tracking device increase.

The Kokuyo student with a beanie (according to the files, a subordinate named Chikusa Kakimoto) is fighting Smoking Bomb with some kind of poison darts.

“Tell me who the Vongola Decimo is!” Chikusa demands.

“ _No!_ ” Smoking Bomb spits out, throwing more dynamite into the air.

“Goku—” Tsuna looks ready to run into the chaos like a suicidal idiot.

“Tsuna?!” Yamamoto, thankfully, intercepts Tsuna from the other corner. He’s carrying his backpack and looks disheveled, likely from wondering where Tsuna’s been all day. “There you are! When I came by your house, your mom said… Hey, whoa, is Gokudera playing with fireworks again?” Yamamoto asks with a teasing eye, probably hoping to tease a nervous laugh or silly Tsuna-expression again.

Instead Tsuna pushes Yamamoto behind a mailbox. “Stay there. Please don’t move, Yamamoto. I have to get Gokudera out of there…”

His eyes sharpen. “Tsuna?”

 _Damn it_. “Don’t go charging in there, Dame-Tsuna—!”

That’s just what Tsuna does. With a bit of screaming and wincing on the side. If Reborn was his original side, he’d carry Tsuna over his shoulder and dump him in a safe-room.

Yamamoto runs after him.

“ _Stop it!_ ” Tsuna jumps in front of Smoking Bomb, arms spread out.

Chikusa actually pauses, assessing new prey.

“Tsuna Sawada,” he says slowly, “the weakest male student in Namimori High. Not our candidate.” He raises his needles again.

“Well I _am_. The Vongola Decimo, that is. That’s me. Tsuna.”

“No, Tenth, don’t,” Smoking Bomb tries to push him behind but then moans for giving away Tsuna’s identity.

“So it is you…” Chikusa narrows his eyes. “Mukuro-sama will be pleased.”

Tsuna shakes all over but he shouts, as Yamamoto comes by his side, “Then tell this… _Mukuro person_ that if he wants to hurt anyone then to stop! If he wants me, then come fight me only! Leave other people out of this!”

“Tsuna/Tenth, no!” both Smoking Bomb and Yamamoto shout.

But Chikusa just shrugs. “Mukuro-sama wants you to suffer, Vongola-brat. That includes your subordinates.”

“I don’t _have_ subordinates. Look at me! Do I look like a boss to you? No. I’m just a kid. If this Mukuro guy wants me, wants the Vongola to suffer, then fight _me_. That should be enough to get the Ninth angry.”

“Tenth!” Gokudera grabs Tsuna’s arm but Tsuna refuses to look away from Chikusa, refuses to acknowledge Yamamoto’s calculating stare.

Chikusa lowers his needles. A flash of something darker behind his glasses.

He smiles then, but his smile looks like something cut out of a magazine and glued on his face, not his at all.

“No,” he says.

“Your heart—” Reborn hears Tsuna whisper.

Before anyone can react, Reborn spots the man reported to be Rokudo from out of the shadows, he opens his mouth to warn them but—

Black and white flare in front of him, oddly familiar checkers, and Reborn falls to the ground.

0

There are nurses and doctors gathered around Granny’s bed, shouting things about dropping blood pressures and heart rates and Tsuna can barely hear Granny’s shard of a heart over the chorus of machines.

“Granny!” Tsuna cries, but one of the nurses push him out the door, while also trying to grab a needle for the doctor.

“Get away from me,” Granny gasps, pushing their hands and needles away. “It’s my time. I’m done. I have to go—”

“No!” Tsuna runs past the nurses and grabs Granny’s hand. “Please don’t go. I have, I have so many questions and we haven’t finished book four of the Cielo superhero series yet, _please_ , Granny…”

Her eyes widen when she sees him and she threatens to spit at anyone who tries to pry Tsuna away. Quietly, her fingers wrap around his, barely warm like a fluttering cloth.

“Keep reading, alright, child? I’ll be listening from wherever souls go from here so you keep reading out loud… and…”

Tsuna just buries his head against her arm, shaking his head.

“Child… child, look at me…”

Tsuna suppresses a sob and peeks up.

She presses her shard of a heart against his cheek.

“…Take it,” she whispers.

Tsuna’s eyes go wide.

“N-no… I c-can’t…”

“ _Take it_ ,” she insists, while the doctors and nurses stare in confusion. “Please… Tsuna…” she leans in and whispers, “ _I don’t want to burn up_.”

He hiccups. His thoughts blank. Wild, as she pushes her shard into his hands. _Burn up?_

His fingers close over her shard.

And with one final beep, Granny Minori dies.

0

When Reborn wakes up, he’s tied up next to Yamamoto and Smoking Bomb, and pissed off to hell. Even Leon is tied up and he’s a freaking cocoon that floats by Reborn’s head sometimes. Whoever got the drop on him, Reborn is going to kill. Several times over.

He doesn’t get snuck up on. Not the world’s greatest hitman. Not since the ring incident. Rokudo and his subordinates will _pay_ and—

Reborn breaks through his own restraints easily. Simple chains are nothing to him but he decides to stay put, play the hostage. Yamamoto and Smoking Bomb are still unconscious. Maybe Reborn should rethinking having them as Tsuna’s guardians. Wait. Tsuna.

It’s dark but Reborn can see sunlight filtering through the rooftop. Judging from the wide walls, stage, and ceiling, Reborn would say they’re being held in an abandoned auditorium. Perhaps for a theater program or an amusement park. He and the other potential guardians are lined up against the wall on the stage and when Reborn squints, he sees Tsuna’s body, abandoned in the middle of the auditorium like a doll.

Rokudo is going to get his limbs cut off. Slowly. Then Reborn will grant him death.

Reborn would yell, whisper, try to get Tsuna’s attention somehow, but he’s not stupid enough to alert the enemy. While he can’t see any guards, he can sense dark killing intent filling the room. No, until Reborn can determine Rokudo’s personality, he won’t make any sudden moves.

Besides, according to Nono’s orders, he can’t interfere with Tsuna’s ‘mission’ to recapture Rokudo. Not unless the situation becomes truly hopeless. The Vongola need their heir after all.

That doesn’t stop him from staring intensely at Tsuna, as if a glare will be enough to wake him up (if Reborn had it his way, a glare _would_.)

Someone crashes through the main doors, falling at a heap a few feet away from Tsuna.

It’s Hibari, covered in bloody gashes and brushes, his uniform torn in different places, and still, Hibari is struggling to get up.

Tsuna opens his eyes, the moment Hibari collapses back down.

“H-Hibari!” he rushes over.

No answer.

“Your subordinates are _weak_ ,” says a voice from beyond the doors.

With shaking hands, Tsuna looks up from Hibari’s body to the huge form of Mukuro Rokudo.

Reborn wishes Leon would just hatch already so he could shoot Rokudo in both eyes.

Rokudo walks in with hard steps, dragging along Ryohei’s unconscious and bloodied form. “This belongs to you,” he throws Ryohei at Tsuna.

“Onii-san!”

Ryohei’s form hits Tsuna in the shoulders, throwing him back on the ground, but Tsuna just carefully moves Ryohei off of himself and tries to hide his trembling fists.

“…Why…?” Tsuna’s voice sounds so frail, so quiet. “ _I told you to leave them alone!_ ”

“Because the mafia has to suffer for what they did to me. I’m going to make you regret living,” Rokudo says coldly, “starting with killing your subordinates.”

“You…” Tsuna shivers but looks confused instead of scared, “you… don’t really mean that, do you…?”

 _Stupid Tsuna,_ Reborn shouts, _don’t try your sentimentality on a killer!_

But Rokudo freezes, like Tsuna has pulled an AK-47 on him.

“What are you… Of course, I mean it—”

“No,” Tsuna says more certain this time. He steps closer, “Reborn told me about what Mukuro Rokudo is supposed to be like before I went looking for him… and you… you don’t seem like you want to hurt anyone…”

Come to think of it, Reborn notices how Ryohei and Hibari are still breathing. At first he thought Rokudo was playing sadistic games with Tsuna, making him watch his friends suffer. But wouldn’t it be better to gift Tsuna with two corpses and then torture Yamamoto and Smoking Bomb in front of him? Rokudo’s eyes lack the resolve to kill but have the emptiness of a killer…

Rokudo steps back, shaking his head, “No, no, no… I just… I wasn’t…”

“Your heart…” Tsuna lifts up his hand, touching something in the air that Reborn can’t see, “it’s connected to something angry… if I cut it then…”

Tsuna moves his fingers together, as if to rip the oxygen away from Rokudo.

Immediately, Rokudo falls to his knees, holding onto his chest and looking at Tsuna in wonder. “You… how did you—”

The lights in the auditorium turn on.

“Yes,” a teenager steps out on stage, “how _did_ you break my control over Lancia?”

The killing intent Reborn sensed earlier is all concentrated on this teenager. He seems to wear the killing intent with pride, a cloak of his future sins.

Tsuna has that strange, almost-fire, look in his eyes again. Not-Rokudo, Lancia, stands up, trying to put Tsuna behind him but Tsuna only shakes his head.

“You must be Mukuro.”

0

The shard doesn’t stop whispering to him. Yet the whispers are twisted and murky, like voices trapped underwater and Tsuna feels like throwing up when he hears them. _Who are you_ , he wants to ask, _why are you living in Granny’s heart?_

“…Ugly, isn’t it?”

Tsuna’s spins around, eyes covered in tears. The checkered-masked man chuckles and pats his head.

“You… you’re the man from Granny’s story.”

His lips angle up. “I might be. Or I could be a man who wears the same mask.” He reaches out to touch the shard but Tsuna pulls away. “She should have burned. I would have taken good care of her.”

Tsuna shivers.

The masked man holds out a hand. “Come. You’re the only one left. I can take care of you. I won’t make you hurt, like these humans do.”

“W-who… who are you?”

The masked man smiles wider. “I suppose you could call me your Grandpa Kawahira. Well?” he pushes his hand closer.

“N-no… I can’t,” he thinks of his mother and what she said about never talking to strangers. He thinks of how Kawahira’s heart looks literally made of clear glass, unbroken, no sound.

“Hm… well. You’re young. You’ll change your mind. Humans won’t be kind to you. When you decide to follow me, just give me a call,” the masked man bows like a gentleman. “I’ll be waiting.”

0

The real Rokudo claps slowly, his hair glinting like dragon scales in the new light. Beside Reborn, Yamamoto and Smoking Bomb slowly begin to wake.

“Impressive, Vongola-kun… I have to wonder how you’re so perceptive. The famous hyper intuition, maybe?”

Tsuna doesn’t answer, only stares at Rokudo’s chest in the same horror that he looked at Reborn when they first met.

“A-Are you a-alright?” Tsuna asks in the same way, and Reborn doesn’t know whether to yell at Tsuna for being stupidly kind or drag him away from all killers from now on.

Rokudo’s smile becomes glacial.

He whips around, dragging Smoking Bomb up, despite Smoking Bomb’s swearing protests and Tsuna’s cries of “put Gokudera-kun down!”

Then he whips out a dagger and both Smoking Bomb and Tsuna fall in horrified silence.

“You know,” Rokudo presses the blade closer to Smoking Bomb’s neck, “I’m curious… You seem to have some… special abilities, all to do with these funny pendants here,” he uses the blade to lift up the chains around Smoking Bomb’s neck. The cross pendant shines a little brighter in the light, like it’s orange instead of muddy brown as usual. “I asked around. Seems to be something _special_ you give to your _subordinates_. A sign of loyalty? Did tattoos go out of date?”

“D-don’t touch him!” Tsuna pleads. “P-please, take me instead!”

“Tenth, no!”

Rokudo chuckles, “All in due time, Tsunayoshi-kun. Now _answer my question._ What do these pendants mean? Why do they,” he moves to jam the blade into Smoking Bomb, Tsuna screams, but the pendant glows _orange again,_ making the blade fly away, “reject my possession abilities?”

 _Possession,_ Reborn files that away for later.

“And why do you,” Rokudo smiles wider when he sees Tsuna falls over, holding onto his nose, blood trailing down his fingers, “seem to hurt instead?”

 _No_ , Reborn thinks, looking away from Smoking Bomb’s devastated face, _don’t tell him, don’t tell anyone. Whatever it is, they’ll use it against you—_

“Well?” Rokudo pulls out a gun, moving it to Smoking Bomb’s head, “Shall I try and see what happens if I kill—”

“NO!” Smoking Bomb slams his body against Rokudo and starts biting at his arm. “Don’t… You… Dare… Hurt… Tenth… Through… Me!”

Rokudo twists his body around, moves to grab the gun, but Smoking Bomb’s jaws are tight. He maneuvers his legs over top of Rokudo’s, awkwardly pinning him down but Rokudo merely rips his arm away, letting blood and bite marks trail over his skin.

He gets the gun, clicks at the trigger but—

“Gokudera-kun!”

Lancia jumps on stage and moves Smoking Bomb out of the way just in time. Except Rokudo still has the gun, he’s aiming it at Ryohei and Hibari, still unconscious on the floor. Tsuna can only cover one of them, he’s so small, and Reborn is jumping out of his restraints, no interference be damned—

“They’re for my friends!” Tsuna shouts.

Rokudo’s fingers pause at the trigger.

“Tenth…” Gokudera shakes his head, “Please.”

But Tsuna glances over at Ryohei and Hibari, at Yamamoto and Reborn tied up. He gulps and goes on.

“These pendants… they’re… they’re special. Granny Minori… she taught me, well, they’re supposed to be for people I care about. They help protect them. I, um, I’m not sure how exactly it works, Grandpa Kawahira tried to explain it to me later but, uh, the pendants help you feel less alone when you’re sad. They can’t do more than that unless you’re in fatal danger, and then they try to protect you… but only as long as… as long as…” Tsuna starts to fiddle with his shard of a pendant, “…the maker is still alive.”

“Oh,” Rokudo’s eyes gleam with calculation and Reborn knows that Rokudo must be calculating how to use this to his own advantage. Fuck. Leon, just hatch already! “Then why are _you_ wearing one?”

Tsuna flinches. “Well—”

“Never mind. Your pendant, I want it. Take it off and give it to me.”

“But—”

“ _Now_.” He points the gun at Ryohei and Hibari.

Neither Gokudera nor Lancia move, either shocked from Tsuna’s revelations or hesitant to get Ryohei and Hibari hurt. Yamamoto is dangerously silent and Reborn would be strangling Rokudo if he could, if Tsuna’s eyes weren’t that strange calm again.

Slowly, Tsuna walks up to Rokudo, his shard of a pendant now cradled in his palm.

Rokudo swipes it as soon as Tsuna is close enough and the pendant in Reborn’s pocket seems to scream at the touch, pressing closer to Reborn’s skin.

_Don’t touch it, don’t touch it—_

0

Nana cries for days. Iemitsu tries to cheer her with flowers and jokes but often leaves to go drinking, unsure of how to talk to her. _Just listen to her heart, you stupid Papa_ , Tsuna wants to yell. But Tsuna isn’t any better. He can only sit with her when she pretends not to cry, he can only remind her that he’s here.

Even Nagi seems to disappear after Granny’s death. When Tsuna asks the nurses where Nagi is, they only shake their heads sadly and Tsuna is too afraid to ask if she went home or if she…

Most nurse hearts are sad when they talk about the missing children in the hospital.

Tsuna doesn’t know what to do, where to go. For the first time, he can’t make pendants anymore. His fingers and eyes bleed and bleed but nothing comes out but ugly muddy things that no one would want to wear.

When he shows them to Daichi, his friend just turns up his nose in disgust. “Ew, are you trying to get people to wear crystallized poop, Tsuna? Come on, where are your usual pendants? The cool orange ones?”

Tsuna doesn’t answer.

He doesn’t know what to feel anymore. He just wants to talk to Granny but Granny isn’t there anymore, only this empty shard around his neck that likes to howl muffled ghost stories when he sleeps. He can’t look at Daichi’s pendant without wanting to tear up, can’t look at the colour blue without wanting to fall away.

“What’s wrong with you, Tsuna?” Daichi, the only person who talks to him these days, asks. “You’re no fun anymore.”

Tsuna is not sure how to describe this. He wants to throw up and disappear at the same time. He wants to melt into the covers his bed and never come out. Most of all, he wants Granny to tell him what to do.

“Hey!” Daichi pushes him, “Are you listening?”

Tsuna doesn’t remember, but he thinks he mumbles something like ‘yes’ to mollify Daichi. Lately people’s hearts have been growing so loud, so sad and angry and bitter. Their colours are bright, blinding, like rows of neon lights in the city trying to outshine each other. Tsuna doesn’t know how to move through them, how to pick out real human voices over the screeching of heartsongs.

“Look, it’s Dame-Tsuna,” they start to call him, because he’s always walking into poles or the wrong washroom, blinded by colour. “The idiot who makes ugly necklaces.”

He hears a lot of shattering in the hallways. He starts spending his time throwing up in the bathroom, feeling for the empty gaps in his heart.

“Daichi?” he asks, because Daichi is the one person who makes him want to get up nowadays. Because Daichi still calls him Tsuna.

But Daichi hasn’t been around lately. Not since the shattering started.

“Oh,” Daichi stands in the hall, surrounded by the other students did the shattering. “Tsuna. Hi.”

“Um,” Tsuna tries not to look at them, “do you want to eat lunch together? I, uh, brought hamburgers.”

Daichi doesn’t answer.

One of the students behind him, pushes Daichi forward, and mutters, ‘do it.’ Their hearts seem a bit cloudier than usual, their song-whispers of _Dame-Tsuna, Dame-Tsuna_ echo in the hall.

 _Make it stop, please make it stop_.

“…Daichi?” he asks again. Hopefully Daichi will drag them both to the far side of the school, where Tsuna can focus on Daichi’s heartsong instead.

But Daichi doesn’t move. His heartsong is strangely pianissimo today.

“G-go away, D-Dame-Tsuna.”

If Tsuna could hear his own heartsong, it would be strangled right now. Played on broken strings.

“Y-your pendants are p-piss ugly and I… I don’t want to see you anymore!”

0

Rokudo grins as wide as a spoiled child at Christmas, dangling the dull blue shard in his hands.

“I wonder…” he flicks the shard across his teeth, “what would happen if…”

He lets go of the shard.

It falls.

0

Daichi’s pendant shatters on the ground…

…And Tsuna rushes to the bathroom to bottle his screams.

0

It does not break.

0

_O child, do you know how long I’ve waited for you?_


	3. Part 3: Treasures

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm so so so so sorry this chapter took so long. I had to split it into 2, because it was growing waaaay too long. Also, in my defense, Mukuro's headspace does not mesh well with mine. I hope you like it!
> 
> Thank you for waiting so patiently. Every comment and review I've received kept me going. You're all amazing!

 

 _No, no, no, no._ He tries to scrub at his arms, his chest, but the strange burning lines on his skin won’t go away. They shine like the glinting teeth of wolves in the dark, like embers of lava before a volcano erupts. Tsuna wonders if he’ll burn up like the lady in the story.

They hurt so much.

The stall walls feel like shadowy arms, hiding him from the rest of the school, instead of a stifling box, and Tsuna has never been so grateful for walls before. No one can see him retching into the toilet, or the blotchy tears and snot dripping down his face. No one can see him kneel and put his hands against his head. He’s safe. Mute in the noise of other heartsongs arguing to be heard.

Just him.

There’s even toilet paper for him to use to wipe his face and blow his nose. Later. Right now, he just can’t stop heaving and sobbing in the same gasping breaths, like he’s choking on air, and trying to find the oxygen in it. All his body wants to do is shudder in every sob, and just vibrate in all the words that want to rip his chest apart.

 _E-ever s-since y-your pendants have t-turned ugly, you’ve been no fun to be around. Just g-go away, D-dame Tsuna!_ Daichi had told him, over the shattering of his pendant.

Tsuna closes his eyes and wishes the stall could block out screams. Then he’d try to yell, anything to stop his heaving-sobbing-gasping. He just wants to stop feeling. Is there a way to stop feeling?

Muffled, twisted whispers rise out of Granny’s shard and Tsuna can’t do this right now, he can’t listen to them tell him ghost stories again—

“… _okay… be okay… you’ll…. okay…_ ”

His fist stops at the toilet rim, the sharp edges of Granny’s shard digging into his skin and Tsuna’s sobs almost stop.

“…G-Granny…?”

He moves the shard to his ear, tries to calm his shuddering breaths and _listen._

“… _child… you’ll… okay… you’ll be… Child, you’ll… be okay…_ ”

Her voice echoes and whispers the same words in different orders, fading in and out like a broken, looping, cassette tape.

“G-Granny! Granny, are you there?!” Tsuna hold the shard so tight that his palm starts to bleed.

“… _Be okay… Child, you’ll… be okay…_ ”

“P-please, G-Granny… I… I don’t know what to do!”

The shard doesn’t answer. Only loops around the same words, until Tsuna can hear them later in his sleep instead of the murky ghost stories.

He brings the shard to his chest, near his tired heart, and curls up against the door. If he closes his eyes, he can pretend the walls are giving him a hug.

0

The shard bursts into columns of blue lightning, like a geyser of fire sprouting from the ground, and before anyone can react, Tsuna pushes Rokudo, Lancia and Smoking Bomb out of the way, crashing hard to the floor.

Immediately, the shard goes silent. The lightning vanishes and the shard sits on the floor, as if nothing happened at all.

Reborn probably speaks for everyone present, when he spits out, “What. The. Hell.”

Yamamoto has his jaw slightly open, in awe and disbelief, before he snaps to his senses and tries to wiggle out of his restraints. “Tsuna! Tsuna, are you okay?!”

Tsuna barely has time to answer with a pained, “yeah…”, when Rokudo starts to twitch on the ground and Tsuna pulls Smoking Bomb up and away from Rokudo’s form. Lancia backs up beside them.

Smoking Bomb and Tsuna silently argue for a bit, each trying to stand in front of the other to protect him, but Smoking Bomb wins. He’s stronger (physically anyways) than Tsuna, and Tsuna just scowls unhappily behind him.

“You… that _power_ …” Rokudo stares at Tsuna in a hungry way that makes Reborn want to peel the killer’s face off.

“It’s not mine,” Tsuna says quickly, while Smoking Bomb backs them both away further. “It was my grandmother’s. She… doesn’t like other people touching it.”

Grandmother. Of course. That Sawada family pendant line that Nana told Reborn before. Yet another detail to interrogate Tsuna about.

Rokudo looks like a creepy kid who won the lottery and is plotting world domination with it. “There are more of you?”

“She’s dead.” Tsuna puts an end to that thought quickly. “It’s just me,” he adds, because he’s an idiot, and can’t see how the mafia will make a cash commodity of him if they knew (which they won’t, because Reborn will kill them if they do.)

Both Lancia and Yamamoto tense, sending killing intent in Rokudo’s path. Yamamoto can’t do much, all tied up, so Reborn inches over to fix that problem. Lancia probably has no clue what the hell is going on, not enough information to act without unknowingly harming Tsuna.

Rokudo narrows his eyes. “…You said the pendants only work as long as the maker is alive.”

Tsuna flinches. “I’m different. _Granny’s_ different.”

Rokudo looks back at the shard that Tsuna dropped, and then at the pendant around Smoking Bomb’s neck.

His intention must be transparent, even to Tsuna, because he says, “You can’t steal one. It won’t work for you. The pendants don’t work for anyone but their intended owner. Um. Sorry.”

Rokudo’s face goes blank and he goes to pick up his fallen dagger. “So it’s a power for your subordinates—”

“They’re my _friends—_ ”

“—your little mafia _pets_. A reward, I suppose, for their loyalty. But you… you can’t use that power, right now, can you? Your pendants might protect your friends… but who protects _you_ , Tsunayoshi-kun? _Your Grandma’s shard is on the ground…_ ”

Everyone seems to move at once.

Rokudo charges at Tsuna with his dagger, swiping angrily, trying to draw blood, and Tsuna is pushed away by Smoking Bomb who takes the hit. Lancia catches Tsuna, telling him to stay close, while Yamamoto and Reborn charge at Rokudo too, hoping to pin him down.

But then Rokudo’s subordinates burst from the holes of the ruined ceiling, like pawns put into play. Ken tackles Yamamoto (Reborn manages to throw a special bat in Yamamoto’s direction, one that will turn into a sword) while M.M. and Birds attack Reborn. Chikusa stabs Smoking Bomb from behind, distracting him, and leaving Rokudo free to run towards Tsuna.

That won’t happen.

Reborn hops over M.M. and her attacks, he uses an extra pistol to shoot Birds directly in the head (such a bastard, according to his files, doesn’t deserve to live) and goes to intercept Rokudo.

Lancia manages to keep up with Rokudo’s movements, but years of mind-control means that Rokudo knows Lancia’s movements by heart and Rokudo easily makes it past him. All Tsuna can do is walk backwards, thankfully towards the door instead of a wall (being chased by bullies is good for _some_ preservation skills), and slide away.

Rokudo barely gives Tsuna, Lancia or Reborn time to watch or think. He attacks from the right, left, then right again and Tsuna can barely keep up with dodging (Ryohei’s impromptu and random boxing training sessions were useful for _something_ , at least).

“Tsuna/Tenth!” Yamamoto and Smoking Bomb, stuck in their own battles, roar.

But eventually Rokudo slices a scar just above Tsuna’s knuckles and Reborn sees _red_ , shooting all his bullets at Rokudo’s head.

That fucker Rokudo dodges, with the audacity to look _satisfied_ , as he jumps back towards the emptiest corner of the auditorium while twirling that bloody dagger in his hands.

“If I can’t use your powers as _myself_ , then I will through _your body,_ ” Rokudo pulls out a gun, places it against his forehead, and shoots.

Tsuna’s really the only one who seems to scream _for_ the bastard. Smoking Bomb merely stares in shock, while Yamamoto seems to smile with a glint of satisfaction in his eyes. But Lancia actually looks _terrified_ , staring _at Tsuna_ , instead of Rokudo, and Reborn didn’t notice before but… the rest of Rokudo’s subordinates seem oddly… subdued. Dazed. Motionless.

More mind control probably… But shouldn’t it have broken by now, with the bastard’s death?

That’s when Tsuna starts clawing at his own chest, nails drawing red and skin.

“ _Tsuna!_ ” Yamamoto tries to go to him, but Ken swipes at him and he can’t get away.

“Tenth!” Smoking Bomb, too, seems ready to bomb the entire auditorium but nearly collapses from the poison needles. Seems the pendants can only defend against truly fatal or painful attacks. Maybe the pendants can’t detect poison.

In any case, Reborn hops on Tsuna’s shoulder and grabs his face. “Tsuna, get a hold of yourself!”

But Tsuna just keeps clawing at himself, murmuring, “No, no, no, get out of my head, Rokudo, you _can’t go there!_ ”

Reborn’s eyes widen. Could it be…?

He looks to Lancia for confirmation. “The possession bullet… Is Rokudo trying to possess Tsuna, _right now_?”

Lancia can only nod in horror.

“ _No!_ ” The possession bullet is illegal, it shouldn’t exist!

Reborn hops off Tsuna, rushes to Rokudo’s body. There has to be something he can do. Maybe if he pries the bullet out, then Rokudo will vanish, float away. But maybe that will unintentionally trap Rokudo in the same body with Tsuna, both of them always battling for control of the body. Too risky. But if he doesn’t try, then—

“ _ArGH!_ ”

Tsuna is in pain. Reborn goes to pry the bullet out when—

“ _Get OUT!_ ”

All the pendants in the room flash orange, including the one in Reborn’s pocket, and Rokudo gasps, opening his eyes. The bullet wound gone.

The hush in the auditorium is so sickening that Reborn wishes he could stab it.

“You…” Rokudo points a shaky finger at Tsuna, “What _are_ you…?”

There’s nothing but hunger and delight in his voice. Maybe a touch of fear and even… respect. This killer _dares_ , when he hurt Tsuna so much…!

Reborn grabs the abandoned gun that Rokudo used, empties the clip of possession bullets (good riddance, Reborn will incinerate them later, but for now, in the pocket they go) and puts in his own clip. Aims for Rokudo’s head.

“Wait! Stop, Reborn! Don’t kill him!”

Almost everyone freezes.

“ _What_.”

If Tsuna is going to do what Reborn thinks (knows) Tsuna will do, then Reborn definitely has to kill Rokudo now. But he thinks of Tsuna’s disappointed face again, the sad smiles, and lonely form on the swings, and his fingers won’t move.

Even Rokudo looks perplexed. “He’s right, you know. Execute me. I’ll come back for your body in the future. I won’t stop.”

“I… I _know_ … I looked in your head, I know. I _saw it all_.” Tsuna’s face is nothing but devastation.

“It doesn’t do to be too kind, Tsuna,” Reborn snaps, because he should have just bluntly told him instead of trying to beating the implied message in, “people will take advantage of you.”

Yamamoto, Smoking Bomb, and Lancia actually look like they’re about to agree. But surprisingly, it’s Rokudo who spits out, “I don’t need your pity,” instead of milking the opportunity to live, as Reborn thought he might.

Furiously, Tsuna shakes his head. “It’s not pity! I saw, I know, and I _felt it_. You _shot yourself._ It hurt so much but you did it anyways. That’s how angry you are. And you have the right to feel angry! What the mafia did to you… is disgusting.”

All expression slips from Rokudo’s face.

“B-but your m-methods are totally w-wrong! What you’re doing right now… is just creating more hurt! My friends have nothing to do with this. I won’t bring them into the mafia. A-and yet, you’re trying to s-stab them, b-beat them… I won’t forgive that!”

“Then why don’t you just _kill me?!_ ” Rokudo lashes out, as if he’ll throw a knife in Tsuna’s face. “ _Kill me_ if you are so angry!”

But Tsuna shouts, “Because you don’t have to be the monster they tried to make you to be! _Show them_ you are _more_ than that!”

Rokudo steps back, like he’s been burned. “No. I won’t do that… You… you expect me to forget what they did, what they took away…!”

“No. I expect you to find justice without killing others. You’re smart enough to do that, aren’t you?”

Rokudo’s jaw drops, and for a minute, Reborn thinks he sees something like awe flutter through Rokudo’s face. But no, monsters like Rokudo are not capable of holding anything in awe. They can only destroy. Reborn would know; it takes a monster to understand another monster, after all.

Before Reborn can voice this, before Rokudo or Tsuna or anyone else can react, the Vindice burst in through the doors and ceiling with their chains rattling.

“Shit,” Reborn hops towards Tsuna, pistol raised towards them.

“What’s going on?! Who are they?!” Tsuna sees how Rokudo pales and, _of fucking course,_ the idiot sky’s first instinct is to step _in front of the homicidal maniac_ instead of stepping down like _Reborn told him to_.

“The Vindice,” Reborn says calmly because maybe Tsuna won’t do anything stupid if he acts like this is Tsuna’s definition of normal, “basically mafia police. They’re here to take Rokudo and his associates back to prison.”

Shit, he can see the wheels turning in Tsuna’s head when Rokudo tenses.

“Congrats,” Reborn adds quickly, because compliments make people listen to you, right?

God, he’s rusty at this _feelings_ thing. This is why he never wanted a Sky ( _liar_ , didn’t he revere the ground Luce walked on, once?)

“You did your job of distracting and keeping Rokudo in one place for the Vindice to catch up to him. Now take your people,” Reborn gestures to Ryohei and Hibari on the ground (excellent emotional blackmail to a sky’s bleeding heart), “and go home.”

He sees Tsuna’s hands twitch towards Ryohei and Hibari, but Tsuna’s eyes are still on Rokudo.

“But—”

“He’s getting what he deserves according to mafia law!” Reborn snaps. “Just go home!” Which is not the Ninth’s plan at all. Nono wants Tsuna to become acquainted with the Vindice, with the harsh reality of the mafia. But Reborn sees Tsuna standing there, covered in scars, trembling with that odd calm in his eyes, and thinks, _not this Sky._

Nono can’t have him. Iemitsu can’t force him. Reborn won’t _let_ them.

That’s when the Vindice reach out with their fucking chains, pinning Rokudo and his associates down, and Reborn yanks at Tsuna’s hair, determined to stop the idiot from stupid-self-sacrificing-bullshit.

He’s prepared to lash out with harsh insults, with facts, with _pathos,_ if necessary. Anything to stop Tsuna from going.

Yet when Tsuna turns to look at him, he’s not prepared for the weariness long-etched in Tsuna’s face. No, not weariness… _Resignation_ , as if that emotion has long been inked into Tsuna’s skin as law. A resignation that says Tsuna is used to people stepping over his decisions.

And Reborn wants to say something. To disagree. To tell Tsuna ‘no.’

But he can’t.

He just… _can’t_.

Time slows as Reborn just nods. Lets go.

And when Tsuna smiles, Reborn swears that he hears sunlight in his wake—radiant, shining and clear. But then that moment passes, and Tsuna steps towards the twisting chains.

“Tenth, don’t touch that!” Smoking Bomb shouts, racing over to stop Tsuna from being wrapped up in the Vindice’s binds.

Tsuna just reaches down and his hands _burst into flame_.

0

Iemitsu towers over Tsuna, jaw clenched, arms crossed. Surrounded by weary little children, he looks like a giant in one of those fairy tales, choosing his next meal. Or perhaps a guard to a bridge, ready to fight whoever tries to pass. His heart booms with oppressive drums and cymbals while he says nothing and Tsuna can’t help but flinch when Iemitsu moves towards him.

But instead of loud shouts like Iemitsu’s heartsong screams, Iemitsu just puts his hands on Tsuna’s shoulders, and says, “Wipe your eyes, son. Men don’t show their tears.”

This only makes Tsuna sob harder. Doesn’t Iemitsu see the burning, fire-lines on Tsuna’s skin? Doesn’t he see that Tsuna’s literally falling apart, soon to burn up? _Why can’t anyone see the fire-lines?_ But he clamps his lips shut so that no one will hear him. He knows Iemitsu won’t believe him. He knows too well how startling it is to hear other people’s pain.

Iemitsu only frowns and pats Tsuna awkwardly on the head. He tries to pick Tsuna up but Tsuna can _hear his heartsong,_ can hear the way that Iemitsu burns with rage and disappointment.

“You’re so soft,” Iemitsu says when they are a block away from school. The word feels like a stone flung against Tsuna’s face. “What am I going to do with you?”

 _You’re never home_ , Tsuna wants to shout, _I don’t know you, why would you do anything with me?_ But he can’t stop Daichi’s words from echoing in his head, can’t stop seeing Granny Minori slip away in the hospital bed, can’t stop wanting to scream from the burning lines on his skin.

“Don’t tell your mother what happened today,” Iemitsu says when they reach home, “she doesn’t need any more burdens.”

Annoyance strings at Tsuna’s eyes. “I wasn’t going to!”

But Iemitsu barely looks at him. Just pats him on the head automatically, like Tsuna’s problems will vanish if Iemitsu just pretends to be a dad.

“You have to be strong for her,” he says, as if Tsuna hasn’t be _trying so hard_ for the past few months. As if Tsuna’s very presence disturbs the universe.

Maybe he does. Maybe Iemitsu is right. All he knows how to do is cry.

Any tears Tsuna has left become well-acquainted with his pillow in his room.

He’d hate to trouble anyone with the sound of his tears after all.

0

“Let go of Mukuro,” Tsuna says, and a chill runs down Reborn’s spine at how calm, how _resigned_ , Tsuna looks.

The chains in Tsuna’s hands rattle wildly like snakes caught under a branch, but they don’t rip out of his hands. His burning, _flame-orange_ hands.

Hyper Dying Will Mode. Tsuna is using _Hyper Dying Will Mode_ with _no bullets_. He doesn’t even seem aware of this phenomenon. But Smoking Bomb and Lancia stare in reverence, like they’ll get down on their knees and swear allegiance right there. Rokudo looks at Tsuna like he’s a creature beyond this world. Yamamoto whistles in appreciation.

The Vindice still, turning towards Tsuna in unison. Their bandaged heads make them look like mummified zombies from Tsuna’s video games, ready to make Tsuna one of their own (if they try, Reborn will finish them.)

“Rokudo Mukuro is under arrest for his crimes. You have no authority to interfere with justice.”

Tsuna’s eyes narrow. “Is it justice to sentence _minors_ to _prison_ when they were _experimented_ on by the mafia in the first place?”

In hindsight, telling Tsuna Rokudo’s backstory, when they were trying to find Smoking Bomb earlier, was a sloppy move on Reborn’s part. Should have let Tsuna believe that Rokudo is a heartless killer with no sob story whatsoever.

“I wouldn’t call myself a _minor—_ ”

“Mukuro, please stay quiet and let me do this,” Tsuna frowns and somehow his soft words hurt deeper than a shout would.

The Vindice hover closer. “Are you saying our justice is flawed?”

“No. I’m saying this whole system is flawed. You. The Mafia. All of it!” Tsuna gestures to the chains, to Ryohei and Hibari on the floor. “How can you force _kids—_ and yes, we are basically kids, we’re allowed to be—to kill people? That’s just… cruel! Do you have _any_ idea what that does to a person’s heart?! Just look at _you!_ ”

Tsuna points at each Vindice’s chest. From the twitch of their heads, they seem to suspect what Tsuna means though Reborn has no idea what. But after this is all over, Reborn is going to demand all the answers.

“Mukuro and his friends are messed up but they don’t need to go to jail for it. Not your jail. We should be trying to help them reintegrate into society or something!”

The Vindice rumble, their chains clattering in the air. “Are _you_ volunteering, future Decimo?”

Tsuna frowns. “I’m not the Decimo. I won’t be involved in the mafia.”

This time the Vindice laugh, each one sounding like corpses being dropped into graves. “It is in your bloodline, Sawada Tsunayoshi. You cannot run from the Vongola.”

“Then I won’t. I’ll destroy it.”

Every chain goes still. Every breath goes quiet.

Tsuna twitches, like he’ll take back his words at any moment, but then he nods, a steady flame in a desert storm. “Y-yeah! I… I _refuse_ to let the mafia damage the hearts of people I care about. I refuse to let them taint any more. If the mafia wants me so badly… I… I’ll burn it to the ground, starting with fixing the mistakes they made. Rokudo Mukuro… will _not_ go with you.”

Tsuna stands in front of the killer, so stupid, so _bright._

“I’m going to help him... with _out_ spilling any blood.”

The Vindice hiss. Naivety. But Tsuna is so bright that it almost hurts to look at him, and yet, how could anyone look away? It’s like watching a dying lamp become the first sunrise, in a world that never knew a sun. It’s like seeing colour for the first time, in a world dressed in greyscale.

Leon’s cocoon spills apart in sunbeams and Reborn only just sees a pair of mittens (of all the useless things) fall down on Tsuna’s head before the Vindice rise up and attack.

Tsuna’s basically thrown into a metaphorical cesspit of monsters spitting out chains. Reborn barely grabs Leon in time, transforms his partner into his favourite pistol, as Tsuna dodges every attack with that eerie accuracy that Reborn has grown used to. Yamamoto and Gokudera run into the chaos, weapons raised, trying to blow up and/or hack the chains away. Rokudo stares at the cacophony of chains with a growing (and worrying) glee while his subordinates stand by like statues.

 _Screw it_ , Reborn thinks, when he sees a chain pin Tsuna down, and Tsuna wildly throwing his flames about while still holding Leon’s mittens (put them on, damn it, they could save your life, idiot-Tsuna!)

He jumps up and shoots the Vindice pinning Tsuna down in the head. The Vindice doesn’t fall back or bleed (freaky fuckers) but it does let go of its chains and Reborn counts that as a win.

Tsuna spares Reborn one slightly bewildered look (when this shit is all over, Reborn is going to shoot everyone who ever abandoned Tsuna, fuck morality) before he leaps back and rushes back towards the Vindice because he has no sense of self-preservation.

 _Put on the damn gloves,_ Reborn almost shouts, but the Vindice gang up on Tsuna and Reborn has to jump in again.

They fight like they’ve rehearsed it—him and Tsuna. It makes Reborn want to laugh. Is this Sky Harmony? Is this what it feels like, reading another person’s movements as if they were your own?

Then Tsuna falls.

Reborn shoots the closest Vindice right in the heart, and the head too, because death-shots aren’t enough, before he rushes over to Tsuna. Sees the blood dribbling from Tsuna’s nose and lips. The flames hissing out of that red.

_What the hell…?_

This isn’t the time to freeze up. Reborn needs to end this battle _now_ and if he has to drag Tsuna out and abandon the others, then—

The Vindice take this chance to throw their chains on Rokudo and his subordinates.

“No!” Tsuna lashes out, blood spitting on his clothes. His hands get caught up in the Vindice’s chains until Reborn can’t tell apart chain and skin.

Rokudo pales, hands shaking when—

“I think that’s enough, don’t you?”

0

He remembers writing, ‘I want to be a robot when I grow up’ in preschool. Robots are cool. They shoot lasers and can lift cars in the air. They can’t get hurt. They can’t die. They can’t feel.

Tsuna wishes he couldn’t feel right now.

His classmates shove their broken shards in his locker. Sometimes Tsuna finds them in his shoes. He sees the dull brown glass glinting in the garbage every day and a part of him can’t leave them there. So every break, he offers to take out the garbage and picks each shard up to take them home.

They’re broken and jagged and they cut his skin, making more fire-lines that no one else can see. They’re ugly and worn and they won’t shine again. But every time Tsuna looks at them, these broken pieces of his heart, he feels like someone (some _thing_ ) understands so he doesn’t let go.

Strange, really. The only heart he can’t hear is his own and yet he thinks every broken shard he picks up must be crying.

A robot could keep going without this.

Tsuna feels both numb and not. Alive and not. He can’t even remember what day it is or how many times he’s been pushed into the ground. Can’t remember how long Iemitsu has stayed (has he ever stayed this long before?)

He wishes Daichi was as forgettable as a date on the calendar.

The checkered-masked man, though, he does not let Tsuna forget. He stands at the school gates every day and he whispers, when Tsuna walks pass, “I could take you away from this. You would never have to feel despair or scars again.”

The chain holding Granny’s pendant always seems to tighten every time Tsuna thinks about saying yes.

0

The Vindice’s chains hover in the air, like charmed snakes waiting on the final cadence of their master’s tune, just about to bite, to capture. But a tall man in long robes stands just between Tsuna and the chains. Tsuna who jumped in front of Rokudo.

 _This idiot_ , Reborn wants to pry Tsuna away from Rokudo, wants to shout that no killer is worth Tsuna’s life.

The strange man smiles.

“Kawahira,” the Vindice rumble. “This is not your place to intervene.”

Reborn narrows his eyes. Kawahira. As in the Grandpa that Tsuna referenced earlier? Someone who knows about these pendants? He barely looks older than forty! This man doesn’t even have any presence with his deceptively absentminded smile, but something about him makes Reborn want to shoot his corpse.

Kawahira tilts his head. “I’m afraid you’re wrong. You see, Tsuna-kun is my precious relative. He holds a lot of potential for us both.”

The Vindice’s chains shudder.

“This child… is part of _that woman’s_ line?”

“Yes.”

“His flames, then, are they—?”

“Yes. They are.”

“Then, how long will it take—?”

Kawahira’s eyes flash. “Soon enough.”

“…And you deem Mukuro Rokudo’s existence necessary for this to happen?”

“…Only as long as Tsuna-kun considers him necessary.”

The Vindice’s chains fall back to their owners. Each Vindice seems to whisper to the others in their unspoken language, chains clinking around them as substituted chatter.

“We will discuss this with Bermuda. But for now, we will not collect Mukuro Rokudo or his associates until the woman’s promise has been fulfilled. But if Tsunayoshi Sawada relinquishes responsibility for Rokudo at any moment, we will come for him regardless of the promise. Is that satisfactory for you?”

“Hmm,” Kawahira folds his hands together. “That will work perfectly. Until then, give my best wishes to Bermuda.”

The Vindice seem to hiss, “Not likely,” and they vanish as quickly as they came, as if the air opened doors for them to another country (Reborn wouldn’t be surprised.)

In their absence, it feels like a switch has flipped and everyone in the room explodes into chatter.

“What the heck just happened? Did the Vindice just _leave?!_ ” Lancia panics.

“Tsuna/Tenth!” Yamamoto and Smoking Bomb race to Tsuna’s side while Rokudo keeps staring intensely at Tsuna like he’s something to eat. “Are you alright? Are you bleeding anywhere?” they both shout.

“I…” The flames slowly fade from Tsuna’s eyes. The mittens, still mittens, scrunch tightly in his fingers. “I’m fine… I just… Oh! Hibari! Onii-san! We should take them to the hospital… and Grandpa Kawahira, how did you…?”

“I always know when you’re in mortal danger, Tsuna-kun,” Kawahira smiles again. “Honestly, you should just come live with me. You won’t have to strain your heart so much anymore. You barely have any human skin left.”

Instead of looking comforted, Tsuna frowns, the last of the flames leaving his eyes completely. Before Reborn can cut in or demand explanations, Tsuna hisses and clutches his face.

He falls over, blood leaking from his eyes.

0

“I always find heart-scars so eerily beautiful,” the checkered-masked man appears on the rooftop, when Tsuna tries to scrub away the fire-lines again.

“…Heart-scars?”

“Ah,” the checkered-masked man claps his hands together, “so my kin speaks once more! I have missed your voice.”

Tsuna frowns and looks at the glinting fire-lines on his hands again. So many more lines intersect and twine against his fingers. They look like blood-veins but orange and burning.

“ _They_ did this, you know,” the man whispers, suddenly close.

Tsuna stumbles back. “W-what?”

“The humans you gave your heart shards to. They broke your heart. Literally. And gave you these fascinating heart-scars.”

Tsuna’s throat feels hot. He doesn’t even know what to say.

“Humans don’t take good care of you,” the checkered-masked man whispers when he puts a Band-Aid on Tsuna’s knees. “They’re so fickle and contrary. You see it in their hearts, don’t you? If they knew what you could see, why, they’d run away again. Or they’d use you. Maybe they’d be like your father and they wouldn’t acknowledge you.” He pauses. “Or your mother.”

Something long forgotten (he didn’t even think he could _feel_ it anymore) stirs inside his soul. Tsuna pries his leg away. “Mama loves me.” It’s true. It’s true.

The checkered-masked man tilts his head. “She hasn’t spoken a word to you in months.”

“She’s just sad!” Tsuna hears her heart screaming every day. “Haven’t you ever been that sad? So sad that you forget everyone else?”

“You control it.”

“She _lost someone!_ ” Tsuna did too.

Before the checkered-masked man can answer, Tsuna runs off.

Nana won’t abandon him. Tsuna knows this as well as her heart-song. Even if everyone else leaves, Nana will stay. She’s just sad, so sad, right now, but Tsuna can help her…! The pendant in his drawer, maybe it will make her smile, maybe it will make her _see_ him and—

He sees Iemitsu leaving the house with a suitcase.

0

Rokudo catches Tsuna in his arms, fingers brushing against his hair eagerly, as if mere touch will unlock Tsuna’s secrets. Immediately, Yamamoto yanks Tsuna away and Smoking Bomb stands in front of them as a shield while Rokudo shrugs his hands up in surrender.

“Calm down, I won’t hurt your little Sky. I’ve grown quite fond of Tsunayoshi-kun…”

“Touch one hair on his head, and I’ll make you wish I had killed you quickly,” Smoking Bomb snarls, ready to throw dynamite regardless of any pseudo-treaty.

“Perhaps we should escort Tsuna-kun to a hospital first,” Kawahira’s smile twitches.

“Ah!” Smoking Bomb flails around, “Yes! Of course! Hey, you bastard,” he turns to Rokudo, “tell me where the nearest phone is so I can call an ambulance—”

His threats die as soon as Kawahira pulls out a cell phone. Yamamoto just dabs Tsuna’s eyes with his shirt, trying to get rid of the blood. So much blood.

“It’s just flame exhaustion. Not everyone can use Hyper-Dying-Will mode without a bullet,” Kawahira remarks. “Tsuna-kun will be fine after a bit of rest… Though I’d tell him to eat more spinach and red meat, he’ll need to replenish his iron levels.”

Yamamoto only nods, never taking his eyes off Tsuna. Likely, he has no idea what Kawahira is talking about. But Kawahira, on the other hand… well, Flame knowledge is limited to the mafia world. And Kawahira seems to have some sort of connection to the Vindice. Enough authority to get them to bend the law.

Reborn’s eyes narrow. “What side of Tsuna’s family are you from, again?”

Kawahira just shrugs. “The distant side.”

Right. Okay. Bullshit.

Sirens in the distance tell Reborn that help will come soon. Tsuna’s health comes first. Interrogations, later.

“Gokudera, and uh, random guy,” Yamamoto says to Lancia, “you should grab Hibari and Sasagawa. Oh and Tsuna’s Granny’s pendant.”

Smoking Bomb, predictably flails up, “Why should I?!”

“Well, Tsuna would want—”

“ _Let’s go make those idiots as comfortable as possible!_ ” Smoking Bomb races off, dragging Lancia with him.

Satisfied, Yamamoto brings Tsuna closer to his chest and stares coldly at Rokudo.

“What?” Rokudo says innocently. “I won’t do anything illegal. I swear. Not until our Skyling wakes up. Right, everyone?”

Rokudo gestures to his subordinates, who all nod at the same time, expressionless. Then he laughs and laughs like he’s in on the world’s greatest joke.

For that, Reborn knocks him out. Some bastards shouldn’t be allowed to talk.

0

“You’re leaving?”

Iemitsu winces. His heartsong screams _sorry, sorry, have to, need to protect you both_ but Tsuna wants to shake it and shout, _then stay!_ But Iemitsu only laughs too loudly and pats Tsuna’s head. “Got important work to do, son, you know that. Been away for too long. Boss needs me.”

“But mama needs you too!”

His smile stiffens. “Well, the mourning period is over. I’m sure Nana just needs more time to get back to normal and then she’ll be fine again. I’ll call when I can, but for now—”

“Mourning period?” Tsuna’s hands shake.

“Well, yes. Usually people mourn for a few months and then they go back to their routine—”

“Mama’s not okay!” _Neither am I._ “Can’t you see that? She needs you! She always feels better when you’re here. Can’t you ask your boss for more time off? I promise, she just needs more time, she needs you, she—”

“Tsuna.” Iemitsu says sternly, “What did I tell you about crying?”

That’s not the point, that’s not the _point!_ Why does it matter if Tsuna is crying or not? Why does Tsuna have to _care_ that Iemitsu cares? This is about Nana, this is about Iemitsu leaving all the time, and Tsuna feeling like… like…!

“Dad.” Tsuna tugs at his sleeve. “Can’t you stay for five more minutes? I have… I have something to show you. Maybe…” Maybe if he gives Iemitsu a pendent, Iemitsu will understand. Maybe if he gives Nana the pendent in front of Iemitsu, Iemitsu will _see_ and just _know_. How precious it is to be near people who love you. How just being there can be another way of protecting someone.

Iemitsu sighs. “If it’s about those funny-looking pendants you’ve been making, I found a jar of them in your room. They’re not a very nice colour but I’m sure you’ll improve next time I see you. Just give one to me next time. I have to go. The plane leaves in an hour…”

He walks away.

0

Tsuna looks so fragile, lying in the hospital bed.

Tucked into their own beds, Ryohei and Hibari lie across from him in various bandaged states.

“He’ll be okay as soon as he wakes up,” the nurse told them earlier. “He just lost a lot of blood. Tell him to take it easy for the next few days.”

Smoking Bomb, with a notebook that’s probably detailed with recovery plans, had nodded diligently.

Now they all sit around Tsuna’s bed. Waiting.

Reborn doesn’t bother calling Nono, Dino, or Nana yet. Call him selfish, but he needs time to think. Meditate. Get some answers on Tsuna so he knows how best to proceed in keeping Tsuna alive.

Yamamoto and Smoking Bomb each take one of Tsuna’s hands and wait by his bedside. They look like knights, waiting for their liege to wake up. But Reborn feels a strange annoyance at this image and decides to glare at Rokudo and Kawahira instead.

Rokudo and his subordinates received funny stares in the hospital. Probably because of the handcuffs and rope Reborn secured. Tsuna might be willing to forgive the next psycho that tries to kill him, but Reborn doesn’t forget. Rokudo has yet to show any true remorse for his actions. The moment he steps out of line, Reborn will kill him.

Lancia, on the other hand, hovers from bed to bed, unable to look at Tsuna while Kawahira takes the only unoccupied bed in the room and lies down on it (much to the annoyance of the nurses.) He’s barely phased by Reborn’s glares, only mildly amused.

“The secret to Tsunayoshi-kun’s pendants… do you know it?” Rokudo speaks up.

Everyone but Kawahira tenses.

Kawahira only chuckles. “Don’t bother asking, child. You wouldn’t be able to pay the price for it.”

Rokudo looks insulted but Reborn snaps, “And what is this price? Bloody noses? Bleeding tears? Taking pain for other people? Am I missing anything else?”

“Maybe,” Kawahira shrugs.

Reborn raises his gun. “Tell me.”

Kawahira’s smile suddenly feels anything but happy. “Do you really think that a gun will give you the answers you want? These pendants are gifts. Beyond anything you can imagine. They’re my line’s legacy and if you think you can just force yourself into the narrative—”

“…Grandpa Kawahira… stop…”

Everyone’s eyes whip towards the bed.

“Tsuna!”

“Don’t get up, Tenth!”

“Take it easy, there, Skyling—”

Tsuna just winces and tries to sit up against his pillows. Gently, Smoking Bomb helps him while Yamamoto fetches him a glass of water.

“Tsuna-kun?” Kawahira asks, and for the first time, Reborn feels Kawahira’s emotion is genuine.

“…I think I should tell them.”

“No,” Kawahira snaps. “They’re outsiders. They’re already _wasting_ your pendants—”

“They’re my friends,” Tsuna says softly, “and… th-they, they deserve to know.”

0

He sees Nana curled up against the couch, staring at a picture frame. It’s a family portrait. One that Tsuna doesn’t remember taking. But in the photo, Nana and Iemitsu stand by Minori in her hospital bed and Nana holds baby Tsuna like he’s the most important thing in the world.

“I’m sorry,” Tsuna says, after minutes pass in silence and Nana still doesn’t look up from the photo. “Mama, I’m so sorry. I couldn’t stop Iem— _Dad_ from leaving. I thought maybe… I thought…”

It doesn’t matter what he thought. He can’t be a good friend. He can’t be a good son. Or a pendant-maker. What’s the point?

0

Tsuna insists on waiting for Ryohei and Hibari to wake up first. It doesn’t take long. Reborn might have pinched both to get a faster wake-time. Once Hibari calmed down (after trying to kill Rokudo), he and Ryohei settled into an expectant silence.

“…I can see people’s hearts,” Tsuna starts.

Everyone stares in disbelief.

Blushing, Tsuna shakes his head. “Sorry! Sorry! That’s probably not a good way to start this but… um, it’s true! I can… I can see people’s hearts. Not like the fleshy organs or anything but… metaphorical hearts? I guess? Everyone has different colours and designs, different music. I can hear it and figure out people’s emotions… _not that I’m reading your mind or anything_ , I can’t do that. I can just hear emotions. And sometimes words, if your heart is fixated on something. Um. Yeah.”

“…Wait, what?” Ryohei blurts out.

Reborn, for once, actually agrees with Ryohei.

“Um…” Tsuna fidgets, “I guess I could give you more proof—”

“ _A…Amazing!_ ” Smoking Bomb practically sparkles in his seat. “You’re just like a superhero! Maybe you’re related to UMAs? Oh, or an UMA granted you this power? Why didn’t you tell me this sooner, I just—”

“Yeah, that’s pretty cool, Tsuna,” Yamamoto says easily, accepting this as fact like the ocean is blue. “Can everyone in your family do that?”

Tsuna looks surprised at first before he laughs nervously. “Well, only on my mom’s side… but not everyone inherits it. Granny was the last one besides me to…” Tsuna looks down at the pendant lying on his bedsheets. “Um, anyways, so… the pendants are just things that my family makes to protect the wearer? Sort of? If you’re in trouble, the pendant kind of tells me where you are and I’ll try to help you… but mostly, the pendants are actually… um…. kind of… basically… piecesofmyheart.”

For a minute, Reborn feels like he’s with Luce again. That moment of betrayal when his body shrinks into something unfamiliar and alien. That disbelief and denial when he realizes that _this is real_ and he’ll never look like himself again. Except most of that is directed towards Tsuna and Reborn can’t comprehend _why_ anyone would _tear out pieces of himself_ for people who would treat it like trash—

Hibari stands up, ignoring the startled beeps from the heart monitor and the gushing of the IV drip when he falls from his hands.

“Ahh! Hibari, don’t do that, you’re bleeding—”

“Is that really true?”

A nurse comes in, panicked, ready to stab the IV back into Hibari but he just hisses at her and she squeaks, ducking back out the door.

“Um.”

“ _Well?_ ” he demands, “Are these pendants truly pieces of your actual heart?”

Wincing, Tsuna looks to Kawahira for help and Kawahira nods.

But before Kawahira can speak, Rokudo says, “It’s true. I could see what these hearts looked like from Tsunayoshi-kun’s mind when I tried to possess him. What he sees… is _breathtaking_.”

Biting back the urge to stab Rokudo’s eyes out for that possession attempt, (later, Reborn promises himself), Reborn snaps, “But giving _pieces of one’s heart_ , how is that even possible—”

“More like one’s soul rather than the literal heart. Tsuna-kun just happens to see these souls in the shape of a heart. Sometimes he can even crystalize a part of his soul into glass and use it as a way to offer protection. Didn’t you think it was odd if you felt upset or frustrated and the pendant would glow a little? Send you a bit of warmth?” Kawahira cuts in. “That’s what the pendants do. They comfort, if they can.”

Their reactions almost shake the room.

Smoking Bomb falls out of his chair, murmuring about how he’s unworthy while Lancia tries to calm him down. Ryohei almost tears his bandages off, frantically looking for his own pendant, checking to see if it’s still around his neck or just tucked into the drawers with the rest of his clothes. Yamamoto’s grip on Tsuna’s hand is so tight, Reborn kicks at him for cutting off Tsuna’s circulation. Rokudo actually tries to touch Tsuna, see where his heart is, before Lancia and Smoking Bomb tackle him away and have to swat off his hypnotized subordinates. Hibari beats up said subordinates before looking intensely at Tsuna, snatching back his own winged pendant, and storming out the door (probably to terrorize the medical staff.)

“…I’m sorry,” Tsuna slumps down against the pillows. “I should have… should have told you sooner. I was just…” He crinkles up the sheets in his hands. “I’ll understand if you want to leave too.”

Fuck. That.

“Anyone who wants to leave for any petty reason will be shot,” Reborn snarls, patience gone.

Tsuna, the idiot, looks more alarmed. More concerned for any traitors than himself. “But Hibari—”

“He’s pacing outside the hallway, he hasn’t left,” Reborn snarls. And then, because Tsuna should never flinch from him, Reborn adds, “No one here would dare leave you. I’d kill them myself first.”

It may be blunt and he’s trashing all of his rules but, damn it, _he has a piece of Tsuna’s heart in his pocket_. The literal and symbolic power of that gesture alone makes Reborn want to hunt down everyone who chipped away at Tsuna’s self-esteem and wipe their existence off the face of the universe. He doesn’t care if it sounds ruthless or obsessive or immoral. This is who he is.

He wonders, if Tsuna can really see hearts, how ugly Reborn’s heart looks to him right now.

But Smoking Bomb breaks the silence, shouting, “Not before I blow them up!”

“I’d beat up anyone who left you now, to the extreme!” Ryohei joins in.

Tsuna gapes.

“I’m not interested on playing on anyone’s team but yours, Tsuna,” Yamamoto says intently.

“You… saved my life. And from what I heard, you’d do the same for anyone. I don’t care where your affiliation lies, I’ll follow you,” Lancia says quietly.

Rokudo only smiles vaguely.

Each one of them radiates the aura of a potential hitman, ready to court a sky the only way they know how. Tsuna’s kindness is terrifying in that moment, the type of kindness that inspires murder for a boss who doesn’t want to be one. He wonders how Tsuna can bear to look at them all.

Instead of grimacing in disgust (like any normal civilian would do), Tsuna bursts out in hysterical laughter.

“Why do you all keep being so… so nice to me?” he half-laughs, half-wheezes. “I… I lied to you… Kept you all in the dark… And then I was crazy enough to challenge the mafia and say that I’ll destroy it! You shouldn’t… you shouldn’t hang around me anymore. I’ll probably put you in danger again.”

“So what?” Yamamoto cuts in, voice cold. “Then we’ll just have to beat their team—”

“This isn’t a game, Yamamoto!” Tsuna shouts. “It’s real! Mukuro was actually experimented on by a mafia family, Gokudera and Reborn are hitmen! Lancia is some… assassin, person, maybe! If you keep hanging out with me, you’ll get hurt… like you almost were today! Even my pendants couldn’t keep you all safe, it just made Mukuro more curious!”

“Fair enough.” Rokudo shrugs when everyone turns to glare at him. “It’s true. Your abilities are very valuable. I can only imagine what the mafia would do if they could harness the defensive capabilities of your pendant. And think of the information you could learn from observing the state of people’s souls…”

“Yes, well…” Tsuna looks back down at his grandmother’s pendant. “Mukuro’s right.”

“No—”

“You heard what he said! I was enough of a target when Reborn was trying to make me into a mafia boss… if the mafia knew what I could do…”

“They won’t,” Reborn hisses. “This information stays private among the people in this room.”

Tsuna only slumps further against his pillows. “Maybe. Even if the mafia doesn’t find out… I already promised I would destroy the way they work…”

“Why did you?” Rokudo interrupts.

Tsuna blinks at him.

“You’re incredibly weak. From what I’ve seen in your head, you don’t want anything to do with the mafia and yet you’ll wage war with them? You must be a masochist or the stupidest person I’ve ever met. How can someone as weak as you have so much _power_?”

“Sawada’s not _weak_ , you pineapple bastard!”

Ryohei punches him in the face. Then howls because of the added pain to his injured arm.

“Onii-san! Mukuro! Are you both alright?!”

“Wish I’d punched him,” Smoking Bomb mutters to the side.

“Ow… yes, extremely in pain, but worth the punch.” Ryohei gives a thumbs up.

“We shouldn’t fight,” Tsuna cries out, “Look, Mukuro’s hurt now—”

“Is it pity?” Rokudo spits out, kneeling on the ground where he belongs. Reborn doesn’t like the poison that Rokudo emanates in his voice. “You saw a few glimpses of my past when I tried to possess you and now you think you know me? Is that it? Trying to lessen the self-guilt you carry?”

“Of course I feel guilty.”

Rokudo stops.

Tsuna frowns at him, “Even if I try to deny it… I’m… I’m Vongola. I don’t want to be, but _still._ By neglect or ignorance, my so-called family did nothing to help you. Maybe they even caused it… And I’m sorry.”

Then he bows his head, looking so small and fragile that Reborn’s surprised that the smallest sounds haven’t broken him.

Rokudo laughs, each sound sharp and bitter.

“You’re a liar,” he spits, “just like the rest of them.”

Then he storms out, with his brainwashed followers trailing behind him.

Damn it all, Reborn really _is_ going to shoot Rokudo. Now. Probably—

“It’s okay,” Tsuna tugs at Reborn’s sleeve. “It’s… it’s _okay_.”

 _No_ , Reborn wants to snap. _It’s not_. Anyone who walks away from Tsuna, _rejects_ Tsuna, should be shot. Reborn promised that he would let nothing hurt his Sky and even if he has to burn the world, he’ll do it in a heartbeat.

But Tsuna’s trembling hands stop all of Reborn’s thoughts.

Of course, nothing is okay. Tsuna isn’t stupid. He’s just stupidly trying to be strong when it should be his guardian’s jobs to be strong _for_ him. _Reborn’s_ job.

Tsuna doesn’t need a hitman right now. But he needs… whatever Reborn is right now.

So Reborn stays.

0

Oh no. Hot tears stream down his cheeks and he can’t stop mucus from following. Hiccups and coughs and uncontrollable sobs. He can’t breathe, _he can’t breathe,_ he feels like he’s drowning in a thick soup of air and tears, both trying to choke him. He can’t stop, he needs to stop, but it just. Won’t. Stop—

“Oh, Tsuna…”

Warm arms wrap around him, clumsy and desperate like someone trying to relearn a half-forgotten language.

“I’m the one who should be sorry. You’ve been so brave.”

“B-but…!” He shakes his head. He can’t accept this hug. He hasn’t been brave. He’s just been numb this whole time, ignoring Nana just as she ignored him, because it was easier to be in pain.

“You have,” she whispers, rocking them both back and forth. “You’re crying for me, right now, aren’t you? It’s alright, Tsu-kun. You can cry. You’re _allowed_ to cry.”

“B-but I…”

He doesn’t understand it. Crying means he’s being weak little Dame-Tsuna again. Crying means that he’s given up, doesn’t it? How can that ever be brave? This sensation, like hot coals burning up inside his throat and chest, trying to tear themselves out. He wonders if his tears might be trying to turn into acid, to burn him both inside and out.

“It’s painful… but you cried anyways. You stayed.”

 _Oh_ , Tsuna thinks, remembering his father’s back being swallowed by the distance.

They cry together.

0

In the quiet, Kawahira gets up to go after Rokudo. He takes Lancia with him, whispering about debts that need to be paid back. Reborn doesn’t really care, he’ll get that intel later.

The rest of them sit in the hospital room without moving. A room in stasis. As if moving will create ripples amongst themselves.

“We don’t need that bastard, Tenth,” Smoking Bomb bursts out, eyes shining.

Tsuna grimaces, shoulders still shaking.

“Gokudera-kun, don’t—”

“You have _me_ , and even these idiots with you, so _don’t worry,_ I’ll protect you, I’ll—”

“Gokudera—”

“—kill anyone—”

“— _no!_ ”

“—who messes with you, Tenth.”

“ _Stop calling me that!_ ”

Smoking Bomb looks so shattered that Reborn wonders if a gust of wind would blow the remaining pieces of him away. Not Storm Guardian material if a mere emotional outburst will shake him, Reborn almost wants to scoff.

“I’m sorry,” Tsuna immediately flinches. “I didn’t mean to yell… I just… Don’t you see? I’m not who you think I am, Gokudera. I’m not the Tenth. _I don’t want to be_. So please… don’t call me that.”

Smoking Bomb twitches, like he’ll reach out and take Tsuna’s hand, and Reborn doesn’t know how to feel about that.

But before Smoking Bomb can try, Tsuna gives a weary smile. “I think… things are going to be dangerous around me now… and you… you don’t have to stay anymore, now that I’m turning down this whole Vongola thing, Gokudera-kun… You can… you can be _free_ , if you want.”

Smoking Bomb’s face twists.

“…Free?”

“Yes,” Tsuna latches on to that. “I know you only stay because I’m supposed to be the Decimo… But you don’t have to anymore. You can be free of me, of the mafia, all of it.”

Smoking Bomb’s unlit cigarette falls from his mouth. His jaw clenches and he looks so utterly _blank_ that Reborn takes out his pistol, just in case, and Smoking Bomb pulls something out his pocket. A weapon? Dynamite?

It’s a ring. Smoking Bomb has a freaking ring in a box. The little golden topaz stones glitter like bottled pieces of sunlight snatched at dawn. They swirl around the silver ring in a looping spiral pattern that’s surprisingly elegant for someone with Smoking Bomb’s gaudy sense of fashion but suitable for Tsuna who doesn’t like accessories that stand out.

Quite reasonably, Tsuna splutters and everyone one else in the room radiates half killing intent towards Smoking Bomb and pure Sky-possessiveness towards Tsuna.

“What are you…?!”

“I designed this ring the day after you gave me that pendant. It was… it was the first time someone had given me anything without any other motive. You just… gave it to me. I _had_ to make you something in return. I can’t make beautiful pendants like you can, but I can draw. And I sent my design to a jeweler I know, and then I waited for the perfect time to give this to you.”

“Gokudera-kun…”

“In the mafia, we kiss someone’s ring when we swear loyalty to them. And, if you want, you can wear this ring. Not because you’re mafia… but because you’re you. And I hope… I _want_ you to accept this ring as a symbol of how I feel about you.”

The vase by Tsuna’s bedside shatters into pieces.

“…Sorry.” Reborn says tightly, putting his twitching fingers into his pockets. “I saw a cockroach. Do continue.”

Smoking Bomb doesn’t even react to the shattered vase, so intent on his confession. “Look, I don’t know if I love you like a friend or a lover or someone I admire greatly, but I’ve never felt like this before. I want to keep feeling like this. I’ve never felt as alive as I am with you, Tsuna-sama.”

Tsuna, wide-eyed and trembling, shakes his head. “Gokudera-kun, you don’t know what you’re—”

“I know _exactly_ what I’m saying. You might be able to see hearts, Tenth, but it doesn’t mean that you’re always good at interpreting what they feel. Just listen to what I’m saying.”

Tsuna’s eyes glisten. His eyes don’t waver from Smoking Bomb’s heart.

“Tenth, no, _Tsuna,_ ” Smoking Bomb kneels on both knees, one hand holding Tsuna’s wrist tightly, the other holding the ring box, “I want to be with you forever.”

…What.

“Uh, oh crap, wait, what I mean is—! Well, yes, I want to be with you, because you’re amazing and you’re my friend and even more and I, well,” Smoking Bomb turns bright red, “there’s nothing to free me from, Tsuna-sama. You already freed me a long time ago.”

He brings Tsuna’s hand up and kisses it.

“I’ll follow you anywhere… because you are you. And that is not an obligation.”

An exemplary storm, thinks Reborn, and an idiotic one too for charging in with such honesty and making his Sky cry.

0

In the morning, Nana smiles and makes breakfast as if Iemitsu was never there at all.

“Now, don’t look at me like that, Tsu-kun. Mama’s fine. I just needed some sleep, that’s all.”

But her heart says otherwise.

For a moment, Nana’s smile falters.

“No…” she raises a shaking hand to her face. “You’re right. I’m… not fine. But… for now, for _both_ our sakes, Tsu-kun… please… could we just pretend to be happy?”

Muck and heaviness, and all the words that Tsuna has ever wanted to say, settle into Tsuna’s throat, burning like his fire-lines. _Humans don’t take good care of you_ , the checkered-masked man had said.

Tsuna only nods.

Nana’s hug feels like ice.

0

“Ah!” Gokudera’s arms flail, “You’re crying! You shouldn’t be crying! I’m sorry! I upset you! How do I make it better?!”

“I—I’m not crying!”

He is, though. Fat blobs of tears stream down Tsuna’s face and Reborn is going to roast Gokudera alive for years.

“I just. I don’t—”

“Do you need to step out for a bit, Tsuna?” Yamamoto cuts in. “I could take you to the roof, if you want, to cool your head.”

“No,” Reborn snaps. “Tsuna’s still recovering, it’s too risky—”

“Yes,” Tsuna says at the same time, “I need, space. Just… ten minutes. Please.”

Yamamoto and Reborn glare happily at each other before Reborn relents. “Fine. I go too.”

“Tsuna-sama—”

“ _You_ wait here, Gokudera,” Reborn says because this Storm before him is no longer fit to be called the mafia’s Smoking Bomb. “We will return shortly. Keep Rokudo contained if you find him.”

Gently, Yamamoto crouches down next to Tsuna and carries him in his arms. For a moment, Reborn curses his own baby-body. He’s still the world’s number one hitman but even this body can’t carry the one he…

The one he what?

No. This isn’t the time to be conflicted. He has a Sky to take care of.

For once, Tsuna doesn’t argue against the gentle treatment and leans his head against Yamamoto’s chest, hiding his tears. Reborn fights the urge to scowl, to ask when Yamamoto and Gokudera became so close with Tsuna but Reborn knows that he has no one to blame but himself.

The rooftop looks similar to Namimori’s all those months ago but the view spans the entire town, rather than a few neighbourhoods. Everything seems so small and insignificant compared to the all encompassing sky stretching up above and the one in a potential Rain’s arms…

A hitman like Reborn blots the picture with stains but Reborn’s too selfish to care. He stands close by when Yamamoto sets Tsuna down to sit by the railing.

For several minutes, they just breathe together. The Sky accepting all, the Rain calming and comforting until all the Sky’s tears are used up. The Rain always waiting to accept the Sky’s pain, to rage when the Sky can’t. If Reborn had any doubts about Yamamoto as potential guardian material before, now, he almost doesn’t have any left.

“…Um, I’m sorry for yelling at you earlier,” Tsuna mumbles against Yamamoto.

Yamamoto’s smile softens into a genuine one. “It’s alright, Tsuna. I know you didn’t mean it.”

Tsuna stiffens. “What if…” he pulls back, “what if I did?”

Something sharp swims in Yamamoto’s easygoing gaze and Reborn narrows his eyes. “Very funny, Tsuna.”

“No, Yamamoto, _listen_. This mafia stuff, I know you think it’s a game, but it’s not. It’s real. My family’s really messed up and I’ve been really selfish, getting you and Ryohei-sempai and Gokudera involved. You all got hurt because of me.”

“Tsuna—”

“I can’t stop Gokudera, but you don’t have to get involved in this. You should go back to playing baseball,” Tsuna doesn’t see Yamamoto’s face go blank, “or spending time with your dad. Be ordinary for me, please—”

“No,” Yamamoto grips Tsuna’s shoulders tighter, eyes calmer (more unpredictable) than the sea. “I’ll stay.”

“But—”

“Tsuna,” Yamamoto says, placing both hands on his shoulders, “I know this isn’t a game. _I know_. I’ve always known.”

Ah. The truth. A bold move, Reborn clenches his fists. A foolish one. But Tsuna makes everyone act foolish around him.

“What are you…?” Tsuna frowns. “But why…?”

“Games just make more sense to me. It’s easier just to care about my own team. And I’ve always played on your side, Tsuna. I always will.”

Leave it to this stupid Rain to compare everything to a game, but doesn’t Reborn do that too?

Tsuna trembles. “I don’t… I don’t know what to say…”

“Maa, maa,” Yamamoto runs his hand through his hair, “Gokudera has it so easy sometimes, saying what he wants. Tsuna just accepts all of it.”

Quietly, Tsuna stares at Yamamoto’s chest, at the invisible heart that must be there. “You… you really mean it…”

Yamamoto’s hands cradle Tsuna’s face upwards. “Of course I do,” he whispers so tenderly that Reborn wants to look away, to tear them apart, to stop this moment before it can go any further. It’s too close. Too charged with something Reborn doesn’t want for Tsuna.

But then Yamamoto lets go, stepping back into the easygoing mood from before. “I’m happy as long as Tsuna is happy.”

Reborn wants to laugh. Rain material, indeed.

But—

“Maybe I should get Tsuna a ring too… it’s not fair that Gokudera got to it first.”

“Eh?!”

Yamamoto grins and quickly kisses Tsuna’s nose. “Yeah,” he whispers, watching Tsuna splutter in different hues of red, “I’ll have to get you another ring.”

Screw it, Reborn shoots Yamamoto in the sleeve. Annoyingly enough, the boy brushes it off with a laugh, holding Tsuna close once more.

0

Tsuna can pretend to be happy if that’s what Nana wants. Tsuna can learn to ignore the sad songs of the people around him, of Nana, if that’s what she wants. He can. _He can_ , so—

Nana stills, slowly pulling away. “Tsu-kun?” Her voice sounds so close yet far away. He doesn’t want to look at her. “Tsuna… are you… are you crying?”

He shakes his head furiously, only to be squeezed in a painful hug.

“I’m sorry. I’m so, so sorry, Tsuna. You must feel so confused and angry, having this hypocritical mama like me. I shouldn’t have said that. _I’m sorry_.”

No, he shakes his head. Nana shouldn’t be apologizing. Tsuna’s the one who’s too sensitive, too weak. He can’t make pretty pendants or make his family happy or keep them together. He can’t do anything.

“That’s not true,” Nana says fiercely, making Tsuna realize what he said out loud. “You are the best son that I could ever ask for and I would never replace you. You’re _too_ good to me, always trying to carry my burdens and ignoring your own. But your feelings are important too. You’re allowed to be upset with me, to grieve and be sad. Don’t listen when I try to ignore things. Don’t be like me. Mama… Mama slips up sometimes. Mama gets so sad she ignores the world and she forgets she has precious people like _you_ to live for.”

Tsuna almost doesn’t believe her but—

“I’m so proud of you,” she whispers, while everything in her heart sings affection and awe and overwhelming grace. It’s like listening to music for the first time after decades of silence. It’s like finding a song that sings every note of your soul and never finding another like it.

It’s like hearing a real _I love you_ for the first time and actually believing it.

For the first time in months, Tsuna feels so blessed to be able to hear, to see, these little hearts.

0

“ _Sawada! Yamamoto!_ ” Ryohei crashes through the door, “You gotta get back downstairs, Gokudera and Hibari are tearing the hospital apart!”

“What?!” Tsuna jolts up for a minute before swaying on his feet. Yamamoto stands up to hold him. “Why?!”

“It’s Rokudo! Hibari dragged him back to your room and when you weren’t there, Rokudo started saying some nasty stuff about you and then—”

“Let me guess,” Reborn bristles, “Gokudera tried to kill him?”

“Extremely no! _Hibari_ did. Gokudera sort of just joined in.”

This is what Reborn gets for working with adolescent, hormonal, borderline-sadistic, potential guardians who are all (most likely) a bit in love with Tsuna.

“That’s not a very fun game. They’ll make Tsuna worry. They can always kill Rokudo later,” Yamamoto says nonchalantly.

“Yamamoto, we can’t let them destroy the hospital!”

“Ah, true. That would be bad. Okay, I’ll carry you back downstairs, but stay close!”

Before Reborn can stop them, Yamamoto dashes off with Tsuna with a pointed grin in Reborn’s direction. That damn brat…

“Hey kid,” Ryohei says, oddly seriously. “Is it true? Everything Sawada said… about hearts and the mafia…”

Reborn frowns. Now’s not the time for this. But Yamamoto and Tsuna should be able to handle the situation. Reborn trusts Yamamoto, at least, to prevent Tsuna from doing anything stupid, like running out to hug a psychopathic killer like Rokudo and start crying over his inevitable tragic backstory.

“What do you think?”

Unexpectedly, Ryohei scowls. “I know what you’re thinking. But I won’t abandon Sawada! I’m just worried about my family. I have a sister, you know. I can’t get her involved in all this. If I could, I’d take her and Sawada and hide them away somewhere sunny and warm, where they’d never get hurt again. But Sawada wouldn’t go for that.”

“No,” Reborn agrees, “he wouldn’t.”

Ryohei shakes his head, his grin too wide on his face. “I don’t know what to do.”

“Fool,” Reborn whispers, “just be his Sun. Play the idiot you always do, and Tsuna will be content with that.”

Ryohei looks confused for a moment before he shakes his head. “You’re a strange kid. Be his sun? Huh.” Ryohei looks down at his hands. “I’m not much good at anything other than fighting, I don’t think a ‘Sun’ is like that.”

“A Sun is a powerful flame in the mafia world. It can blind and burn those who harm its Sky but it can also heal and give warmth. I can teach you that, if you promise to swear your undying loyalty to Tsuna.”

Without hesitation, Ryohei offers his fist. “To the extreme, I will.”

Reborn nods, letting his fist meet Ryohei’s.

First official guardian. Set.

Now to see the chaos downstairs.

0

“I’m going to do it,” Nana closes her eyes, paces back and forth twenty times, and then picks up the phone. “I’m going to call us an appointment with a grief counsellor. And it’s… it’s going to be okay.”

Tsuna doesn’t understand it, the little cymbals of fear in Nana’s heart-song, the doubts of _what if I’m not sick? What if I’m overreacting? What if it’s all in my head and they don’t take me seriously?_ But he remembers how afraid he was to give her his heart-pendant, how afraid he _still_ is.

His fire-lines glitter brightly, like bits of lava trying to escape the cracks.

He holds her hand.

Gently, painfully, Nana takes another breath and dials the number.

0

Reborn and Ryohei arrive to see hospital equipment torn into little wired pieces, sparking on the floor, and nurses screaming for help.

Yamamoto and Tsuna crouch protected behind a giant cabinet while Hibari and Gokudera throw tonfas and bombs at a cackling Rokudo. Unsurprisingly, Rokudo’s robotic human puppets linger by the wall, watching.

“Gokudera, Hibari, Rokudo, _stop!_ ” Tsuna keeps shouting, but no one listens. Yamamoto seems more concerned with watching as a spectator and keeping Tsuna from running off into the middle of the battle to care. Good.

“Take back what you said about Tsuna-sama!” Gokudera bellows, sending another round of bombs towards Rokudo, somehow without destroying the walls.

Hibari, on the other hand, somehow makes his hospital gown look menacing as he goes for Rokudo’s throat.

Reborn’s tempted to let him. Yet one look at Tsuna’s devastated face and Reborn finds himself stepping into the middle of the battle, subduing all three opponents with a good kick to the head. Nothing like what he could do in his original body, but it gets their attention.

“Idiots. Are you so caught up in your dispute that you can’t even hear your Sky talking?”

Gokudera immediately clams up while Rokudo goes dangerously silent. Hibari, on the other hand, bristles. “Sky?”

“Tsuna.”

“Ah, the little bird,” Hibari nods. “That is an acceptable title for him.”

Note to self, update the civilians on mafia and flame terminology.

“I will still bite that disgusting carnivore’s throat out though,” Hibari moves forward.

“Wait,” Reborn sends all his killing intent into his tone. Hibari only respects power after all, and for some reason, Tsuna. “Let Tsuna say his piece.”

Hibari pauses, looking back and forth before he sighs. “Five minutes. Then I attack.”

Tsuna scrambles out of Yamamoto’s hold, and hiding place, as soon as Hibari leans back against the wall.

“Mukuro, are you hurt?!”

Rokudo, oddly quiet this whole time, glowers. “Are you pitying me again?”

Tsuna looks taken back. Then—

“No. I just… I just want to… say sorry, however I can and—”

Reborn scowls. Tsuna doesn’t need to apologize for things he never did, especially not to a killer but Rokudo’s face turns livid.

“ _I don’t need your sorries!_ ”

Reborn narrows his eyes, torture plans bubbling in his head except Tsuna glances at Reborn and shakes his head no.

“Look, you’re right. I _don’t_ know you. I just… saw some awful things in your head… and I feel like I understand a little more, where you’re coming from… If it were me… I don’t know if I could have survived what you went through. B-but t-that doesn’t e-excuse w-what you d-did to m-my friends! O-or what y-you did to t-this hospital! Y-you’re s-still a jerk!”

Rokudo blinks at this.

“B-but… trying to find justice… especially when people won’t recognize your voice… that’s really brave of you… A-a-and t-that’s… that’s what I’m t-trying to do.”

Something shifts in Rokudo’s gaze and Reborn can’t help but think _shit_.

“Be brave?” he says quietly.

“B-brave enough t-to take r-responsibility. In a _peaceful_ way. If possible,” Tsuna adds hastily.

Rokudo’s shoulders start to shake, and then he bursts into laughter. “Very well, Vongola-kun,” he shifts past Gokudera and Hibari, to take Tsuna’s hand. “I doubt you will pull it off. But I’ll stay close to watch over your progress. Even if you do fail, which you probably will, I’ll just take that body off your hands.”

“Like hell you will!” Gokudera tries to shove him away.

Stealing a quick kiss against Tsuna’s knuckles, Rokudo dodges and smirks.

“Let’s make the mafia burn beautifully together, Vongola-kun,” he says, probably just to watch Hibari darken.

“What part of _peaceful_ do you not understand?!”

 _Shit_ , Reborn thinks again.

At this rate, Reborn will have to post bodyguards by Tsuna’s side 24/7 to stop more killers from latching on to Tsuna’s side. Judging from Yamamoto, Gokudera, Hibari and Ryohei’s murderous looks, those bodyguards might have already started the jobs today.

“I refuse,” Hibari says suddenly, pointing his tonfas to Rokudo’s offending face.

“Excuse me?” Reborn glowers.

“I refuse to acknowledge this scum as one of your allies, little bird.”

“Oh?” Rokudo cocks his head.

“I’ll bite him to death.”

Needless to say, they get kicked out of the hospital.

0

Therapy is strange and uncomfortable. Tsuna tries to listen to what the nice lady Ms. Sakamoto says, he really does, but… he keeps getting distracted by the sound of her own heart. Naoko Sakamoto’s heart is a gentle blue like peacock feathers but its song is tired and weary. _Please tell me your troubles and let me help,_ it calls, _I hope I can help_. It’s honest and tired but it hits too close to home.

Tsuna wonders if his own heart sings that song too.

0

“So,” Tsuna fiddles nervously with his sheets after everyone (under threat of more violence from the nurses) leaves (or in Ryohei and Hibari’s cases, get moved to another hospital room. Hibari had glared at Tsuna and muttered, ‘This isn’t over. I need to punish you for keeping secrets,’ before he left. Reborn would change Cloud Guardian candidates if he didn’t think Hibari would destroy something in retaliation. Hibari, unfortunately, is the best candidate Reborn can think of. For now.)

Kawahira had mysteriously pulled Lancia and Rokudo aside, telling Tsuna ‘not to worry.’ Apparently Kawahira will let the ‘new guests’ stay with him. Immediately, Reborn sends his beetles out to do a background check. Something about Kawahira doesn’t feel right…

“Um,” Tsuna starts again, looking nervously at Leon and Reborn.

“What,” Reborn snaps.

“Well,” Tsuna ducks his head. “I just. You seem. Annoyed. I was just…”

Right. Reborn will have to get used to Tsuna reading his emotions like a book. Then again, he’d always seemed exceptionally perceptive. Now Reborn knows the reason.

“Not with you,” Reborn says stiffly.

“Oh.” Pause. “Are you sure?”

 _Don’t be an idiot,_ Reborn almost snaps but… He promised, what seems like ages ago, to be honest now. At least with Tsuna.

“I’m… annoyed,” he admits, the word strange on his tongue, “not at you specifically… but the situation. Everyone else.”

Tsuna has the gall to look surprised. “But…”

“I _care_ about you, idiot,” Reborn snaps, because he’s not _that_ soft. Yet. “This situation is unprecedented. You barely have a handful of allies, most of them immature flames and one of them an unstable killer. You keep attracting _scum_ like Rokudo because you’re a natural born sky and you can’t help it, but gods, I want to shoot them all. So yes, I’m annoyed, because there are too many unknown variables, too many loose cannons and I can’t—”

_I can’t protect you this way._

Reborn grits his teeth, staring down at his tiny hands. Even at his most powerful now, there are things only an adult-sized body can do.

He’d tear Checkerface apart if he could.

Arms wrap around him. Reborn freezes. “What are you doing, Tsuna?”

“…It’s called a hug, Reborn. You look like you need one.”

“I’m not a _child—_ ”

“I know,” Tsuna says softly, “but everyone needs hugs sometimes. Even scary number one assassins. And… I’m scared too.”

“…Idiot,” Reborn doesn’t lean back, doesn’t bother lying.

Instead, he closes his eyes and allows himself to listen to his Sky’s heartbeat. For a moment, he pretends that he isn’t cursed, that Tsuna isn’t being a sacrificial moron, and that everything will be alright. Just one moment for a fairy tale’s thought.

0

School becomes tolerable. Tsuna still finds shards in the trash, shards he takes home. The checkered-faced man still hangs around the gates but Tsuna ignores him every time, it’s easy to ignore someone when you’re running away from bullies.

He’s tired and scarred but having Nana at home helps. For a while, Tsuna feels like himself again. But he can’t help the lingering fear that whispers in the back of his head that it will only last for so long, he’s Dame-Tsuna, people will figure out he’s faking everything soon and then he’ll _break, break, break,_ just like his shards…

Sometimes Tsuna wonders if the dark thoughts in his head are coming from his own heart, an insidious voice he refuses to recognize as his own.

 _You’re nothing_ , the voice whispers.

 _No,_ he starts to argue back, starts to believe some days. _I’m something._

0

“Your ability… Are there any other negative consequences to it that I’m unaware of? Any other ways you can get hurt?”

He can feel Tsuna tense, feel the smile coming.

“Don’t bother lying. I know abilities like this, _magic_ , always has its drawbacks.”

Cautious, Tsuna says, “…Not always…”

Reborn turns around, meets him face to face. “Do you see this pacifier here?”

Slowly, Tsuna nods.

“It’s one of the most powerful things in the world… and it’s my curse.”

Tsuna’s eyes widen. “You mean…”

“Yeah. It’s a long story but I trusted someone… and they betrayed me. Now me and six other people are cursed to look like infants, cursed to carry this power with us for the balance or the world or some nonsense like that. Cursed to die eventually when we can’t handle this power anymore. So I _know_ , Tsuna, that abilities like flames and prolonged youth come with a price. Don’t tell me that all you suffer for giving away _pieces of your heart_ are nosebleeds.”

Tsuna’s jaw drops. “You’re _dying?!_ ”

Oh great. “That’s not important right now, your pendants—”

“How long do you have?! How does it work?!”

“Tsuna.”

“ _Reborn!_ ”

He sighs. “If I tell you, will you finally be open about your ability?”

Tsuna nods quickly.

“A decade at minimum. _Maybe_ fifteen years. It depends on how chaotic the power in this pacifier is. I have to use my life force, my flames, to keep this power stable. Does that answer your question?”

Tsuna doesn’t answer. Instead, he looks at Reborn the same way he did when they first met, with absolute horror and pain.

“Tsuna, let it go. There’s nothing you can do about it.” Reborn’s not sure why he told Tsuna about the pacifiers either. To force Tsuna’s hand? Because he thought Tsuna might understand? “Now tell me about your ability.”

“…Two years.”

Reborn feels his heart dip down into an icy cold.

“… _What_.”

Tsuna looks up, tired, teary eyed, and a little bit resigned. “That’s how much I have left too.”

0

At some point, Tsuna looks at the little cracks on his heart, at the missing pieces and how his heart still burns, and he thinks, _I have to stop doing this to myself._

0

“…How do we stop it.”

Tsuna shakes his head.

“ _How do we stop it_.”

“You can’t,” Tsuna looks at something Reborn can’t see, “It’s already done.”

“I won’t accept that. We haven’t gone through all the solutions yet. We barely know anything about what you can do, so don’t tell me that _I can’t_.”

The silence eats up Reborn’s heavy breaths.

“Isn’t that what you told yourself when you got cursed?” Tsuna asks and Reborn starts to scowl.

“Don’t ask me to save myself, Tsuna.”

“Then don’t ask me either, Reborn.”

They both glare at each other until Tsuna starts to laugh.

“What are you doing? This isn’t funny! You’re _dying!_ ”

“We all die someday,” Tsuna says between his laughs, “and it _is_ kind of funny. We’re being pretty stupid, arguing over who can be saved…”

Reborn stares at him, tries to remember the last time he lost himself in an argument until logic left his head completely. Somehow the thought of a world without Tsuna became so unbearable that Reborn just had to try _something_ , anything…

“Idiot…” Reborn says, more of an endearment now than an insult, “maybe we should try saving each other.”

Tsuna’s shoulders shake. “I’ll try to save you if you try to save me…?”

“It’s a promise.”

0

“How long are you going to keep letting these herbivores walk all over you?” Hibari says one day when he ambushes Tsuna’s bullies.

Tsuna wonders if he should start running away. With Hibari, no matter what his ice-heart whispers, it’s hard to tell when he’s being ruled by justice or bloodlust.

“Well, herbivore?” Hibari swings his tonfas, as if this is Tsuna’s fault. As if Tsuna _asked_ for the bullies to bother him. “When will you stop being so weak?”

Maybe it’s the stress and sadness, maybe it’s talking to his therapist and sometimes feeling like he can be worth something. Maybe it’s all this and nothing at all, but Tsuna snaps.

“I’m not _letting_ them do anything! So I’m not strong or scary like you, but that doesn’t mean you can pick on me too! I thought you were supposed to be justice for Namimori! Well you’re not very good at it if you yell at other people for not being as strong as you are! I’m not strong, but I’m not _weak_ either!”

Hibari stares at him and while Tsuna’s mind screams at him for the social and physical suicide, he maintains his glare.

Then, impossibly, Hibari _smiles_ the way he does towards his animals.

His hand reaches out, and Tsuna flinches, but instead he gets a soft pat on the head. “You speak too loudly, little bird. Maybe put that voice to good use and stand a little taller when you walk. Keep singing.”

It’s the first time that Tsuna thinks that Hibari might actually be… _nice_. And somehow that feels more terrifying than the Hibari that everyone else sees.

0

A menacing presence enters through the door and Reborn nearly shoots it in the heart.

“You’re _dying?!_ ” Hibari snarls.

Tsuna eeps, and to his credit, doesn’t hide under the covers.

“That is _unacceptable_.”

“Um—”

Hibari turns to Reborn. “What do we have to do to keep the Little Bird alive?”

Reborn crosses his arms, but keeps his finger on the trigger just in case. Unstable Clouds can be a menace to deal with and he doesn’t want Namimori burning to the ground in this Cloud’s rage. “We’re working on it. Tsuna will need more protection, obviously, for when we face the mafia, but we’ll work out the details of combating his… other situation… in time.”

Hibari whirls back to Tsuna, his pendant dangling in his fingers. “You’re not allowed to give me your heart and then leave. I won’t let you. If you die, I will drag you back and bite you.”

Tsuna stutters. “I’m not going to leave on purpose!”

Hibari only scoffs. “You have a bad habit of singing too loudly and attracting predators. You need to be put back in a safe habitat. I will take care of your environment now.”

“Hm,” Reborn perks up, “does this mean you will be one of his guardians?”

Hibari narrows his eyes. “I’m not swearing loyalty. I’m merely claiming _ownership_.”

This fucking brat. Never mind Yamamoto and Gokudera, Hibari is a measly brat that needs to be slapped and thrown off a building.

“Then I’ll have to find another guardian for Tsuna then.”

Hibari throws a tonfa at him. “They’ll have to go through me.”

“Um. What’s this about guardians?!”

Hibari turns back to Tsuna, eyes uncharacteristically softer. Less wild. “They’re your keepers.”

“Wait, _what?!_ ”

Then Hibari smooths out Tsuna’s hair and leaves the room before Reborn can shoot him.

0

Tsuna thinks about Hibari’s words all the way home. _Stand taller. Keep singing._ Isn’t that what his heart is trying to do too? Sing even if Tsuna can’t hear his own voice?

“Tsu-kun? What’s wrong?” Nana asks.

Quietly, Tsuna takes her hand and leads her upstairs.

With trembling fingers, he digs out his old pendant, the one he made just for her, and lets it glimmer in his hands.

“I… I made this for you, Mama. I hope you like it.”

Nana’s eyes water up and her smile is brilliant, the smile Tsuna’s been chasing since Granny died.

“I’d love anything you make, Tsuna. You make everything more beautiful.”

0

Reborn still has more questions but Tsuna needs his rest. They’ll talk more about pacifiers and heart-pendants tomorrow. Reborn takes his place by the window sill, mentally organizing a bodyguard schedule for Tsuna in his head. He’ll have to update Dino about the situation, with Tsuna’s permission, and see how much Nana knows. Perhaps they should start informing Nana of the current situation, and Reborn doesn’t know what he’ll tell Nono yet.

Four teenaged, hormonal guardians. A mass murderer and his hypnotized gang. An old mafia member. Whatever Uncle Kawahira is. Dino. Nana. Bianchi. A few babies. Reborn. And Tsuna.

Not much of an army against all the mafia families in Italy. Not much of a time frame either. _Two years._

Well, if Reborn is throwing his life and blood in this lot, in with this sky, he might as well show it.

Carefully, he takes out the pendant from his pocket, feels it warming his hands.

Then he puts it over his head, next to his pacifier.

0

Tsuna decides to make a pendant to Hibari, a thank you for giving Tsuna confidence.

0

Reborn suddenly falls over, pain pain pain hitting his heart, surrounding him, stabbing at his veins. Pain he hasn’t felt since he last so Luce, since Checkerface, and losing his body.

0

He finds himself bleeding out blood from his eyes and clutching at his chest. _What’s happening, what’s happening._

It never used to hurt this much before.

0

Flames devour Reborn’s body, they eat at his arms and legs. He gasps, reaches out to Tsuna, thinks, _Not you too,_ as he remembers Luce turning her head away in shame as his worldview grew bigger, much too big—

0

The next thing Tsuna knows, he sees the checkered-face man appearing in his room, sweeping Tsuna up in his arms.

“Do you see now, Tsunayoshi-kun?” the man trails his fingers on the new fire-lines on Tsuna’s skin, the jagged glowing scars.

0

Reborn screams. His limbs, they’re—

0

“You’re so much more powerful than the others.”

0

When Reborn wakes up, he’s in a body he long thought was lost forever. Limbs that feel unfamiliarly longer, stronger, faster.

He looks at the mirror to a reflection he hasn’t seen in decades.

**Author's Note:**

> Fanart available: 
> 
> by enasketches - [ here ](http://enasketches.tumblr.com/post/160413787669/hiyaa-first-digital-painting-posted-its-a)
> 
> by zephypoi - [ here ](http://zephypoi.tumblr.com/post/118294309047/inspired-by-sincerely-scattered-shards-by-you)
> 
> by violette posts - [ here ](http://violetteposts.tumblr.com/post/119268770061/so-weeks-ago-i-read-sincerely-scattered)
> 
> by theflyinghamster - [ here ](http://youlighttheskyfanfiction.tumblr.com/post/158940414391/submitted-by-theflyinghamster-dude-i-think-i-died)
> 
> Thank you so much to all the wonderful fanartists out there, you're amazing!
> 
> *
> 
> Personal Fanfic covers/sketches
> 
> [ Fanfic cover drawn in 2016 v1 ](https://youlighttheskyart.tumblr.com/post/158909146969/i-did-this-a-while-ago-like-last-year-but-now-i)
> 
>    
>  [ Rough Sketch of Tsuna Holding a Heart ](https://youlighttheskyart.tumblr.com/post/158949592084/a-reviewer-for-my-fic-sincerely-scattered-shards)


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